CouNCIL AGENDA: 11/29/2011 SUPPLEMENTAL ITEM: 4.7

CITY OF ~ SAN JOSE Memorandum CAPITAL OF SILICON VALLEY

TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND FROM: Joseph Horwedel COUNCIL

SUBJECT: SEE BELOW DATE: November 21,2011

Approved ! Date

COUNCIL DISTRICT: 5 SNI AREA: ¯ Mayfair

SUPPLEMENTAL

SUBJECT: HLll-199, HISTORIC LANDMARK NOMINATION (HL) FOR 2020 E. SAN ANTONIO STREET, MCDONNELL HALL

REASON FOR SUPPLEMENTAL

This supplement transmits additional documentation supporting the proposed City Landmark Designation of McDonnell Hall in recognition of its historic significance in the life and work of C4sar Chfivez:

County of Santa Clara Parks and Recreation Department Report (November 2011) entitled, "Conclusions on the Historical Significance of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church and McDonnell Hall"

Letters of support for federal recognition from La Raza Roundtable, Foundation, Chavez Family Vision, and President of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors.

/s/ JOSEPH HORWEDEL, DIRECTOR Planning, Building and Code Enforcement

For questions, please contact Laurel Prevetti at 408/535-7901. ’

Attachments Conclusions on the Historical Significance of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church and McDonnell Hall

County of Santa Clara Parks and Recreation Department November 2011

I. Introduction

The County of Santa Clara Parks and Recreation Department (County Parks Department) was tasked with researching the historic significance of two proposed buildings (Our Lady of Guadalupe Church and McDonnell Hall) located at 2020 East San Antonio Street in the City of San José. This location was the site where led the farm worker movement in Santa Clara County. There are two structures on the site: McDonnell Hall, brought to the site in the 1950s to serve as the Our Lady of Guadalupe Church and named after the founding priest and Cesar Chavez mentor, Father Donald McDonnell; and the structure that was eventually constructed in 1967 to serve as the new church, now known as Our Lady of Guadalupe Church.

The following summarizes the County Parks Department’s review of the historic significance of McDonnell Hall, which is the structure associated with Cesar Chavez’ seminal period when he lived in the City of San José. The National Park Service (NPS) is evaluating McDonnell Hall as part of its Cesar Chavez Special Resource Study. The NPS study includes McDonnell Hall (the former Our Lady of Guadalupe Church) in the list of 11 potentially nationally significant sites known for their association with Cesar Chavez and the farm labor movement. In this on-going study, NPS has indicated further research is needed to assess these 11 sites in the context of the National Historic Landmark criteria.

II. Background

The NPS is evaluating alternatives for designating sites significant to Cesar Chavez and the farm labor movement in the western as part of the national park system, and also to determine eligibility for listing on the National Register of Historic Places or as a National Historic Landmark. An analysis of these alternatives is detailed in Attachment 1.

The five alternatives identified in the NPS study include the following:

Alternative B: Establishing a national, integrated network of historic sites, museums and interpretative programs. This network would be coordinated with national, regional and local organizations.

Alternative E: Creating a national historic park. The park would incorporate nationally significant sites in and related to Cesar Chavez and the farm labor movement. Five sites have already been identified as nationally significant.

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The Secretary of the Interior would be authorized to add significant associated sites or districts to the national historic park that would be owned and operated by park partners.

NPS identified McDonnell Hall/Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in San José, California as a potential nationally significant site, but determined that further research was needed to assess its integrity and determine whether it meets National Historic Landmark criteria.

III. Study Methodology

The County Parks Department hired Oral Historians Guerra and McBane, LLC to conduct interviews with members of the community to gather information on the events that took place at the site. Interviewees included Mrs. Rita Chavez Medina (Cesar Chavez’s sister), Mr. Rudolph Medina (Cesar Chavez’s nephew), Reverend Deacon Salvador Alvarez, and Mr. Albert Munoz. Research and literature on the site was limited and the majority of the information obtained came from oral interviews and photo documentation from the interviewees. The oral interviews and photo documentation are provided in Attachment 2. It is important to note that the Oral Historians’ report is in draft form because two additional interviews are being conducted for inclusion in their analysis. This additional information and analysis will be forwarded upon completion.

IV. Summary of Information Collected

Cesar Chavez worked in the Santa Clara Valley orchards until he joined the Navy during World War II. Father Donald McDonnell was a Catholic priest sent by the Archdiocese to work with farm workers. Father McDonnell organized a new parish in Sal Si Puedes, the Mexican barrio on the east side of town and the Chavez families were an integral part of that founding group. Masses were held in a garage in Sal Si Puedes.

In the 1950s, Father McDonnell bought a church structure and asked the Chavez and Medina families, along with other parishioners, to move the structure to the site to become Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, which today is known as McDonnell Hall, still located at its original site at 2020 East San Antonio Street, in the City of San José. Cesar Chavez and the other parishioners had to cut the building in half to move it. Cesar Chavez, his wife Helen, his brother Richard and his sister Rita were all part of the first mass that was held at the new church.

After witnessing Cesar Chavez’ leadership in establishing the new church, Father McDonnell identified Cesar Chavez as a potential community leader and became a mentor and teacher to him, introducing him to theories of non-violence and the teachings of Gandhi, as well as Catholic theology. Father McDonnell was instrumental in the development of Cesar Chavez as a leader and central to the beginnings of his efforts.

Fred Ross was a community organizer who established a chapter of the Community Service Organization (CSO) in San Jose. He had gone to Father McDonnell to look at

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setting up meetings in the community and for information on Mexican American leaders who might be interested in working with him.

Father McDonnell directed Fred Ross to Cesar Chavez. At their first meeting, Cesar Chavez became fascinated with community organizing and joined the CSO, first as a volunteer and later heading up the voter registration drive, which often organized meetings at the former Our Lady of Guadalupe Church (currently McDonnell Hall). After a few months, Fred Ross hired Cesar Chavez as a paid staff person for the CSO. All of this organizing took place among the membership of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. After Cesar Chavez left the CSO and began the (“UFW”) union, he continued to rely on support from Father McDonnell and from the church parishioners. His religious views were a critical part of his UFW movement, and Our Lady of Guadalupe Church served as a religious touchstone for him throughout his life.

McDonnell Hall served as both the location of Cesar Chavez’s initial social justice/labor organizing work, the source of his religious inspiration and commitment, and further embodied the spiritual devotion he had for that work. Even when Cesar Chavez left the area, he would return to Our Lady of Guadalupe Church for spiritual renewal and to support the UFW cause.

V. NPS National Historic Landmark Criteria

When evaluating the national significance of a proposed site or structure, the National Park Service (NPS) uses the criteria for national historic landmarks in 36 C.F.R Part 65. Sites and structures that “possess exceptional value or quality in illustrating or interpreting the heritage of the United States in history, architecture, archeology, engineering and culture and that possess a high degree of integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling and association” are considered to be nationally significant. (36 C.F.R. § 65.4(a).) In addition, the site or structure must meet one of six specific criteria. McDonnell Hall well exceeds this threshold, as noted below.

Four of the six specific criteria relate to McDonnell Hall at 2020 East San Antonio Street in the City of San José. The following is an analysis of these criteria.

Applicable National Historic Landmark Criteria

• Building or site is “associated with events that have made a significant contribution to, and are identified with, or that outstandingly represent, the broad national patterns of United States history and from which an understanding and appreciation of those patterns may be gained.” (36 C.F.R. § 65.4(a)(1).)

The United States has a strong history of labor organizing and worker movements. Previous studies by the NPS have determined that the farm worker movement in the American West is of national significance, and that Cesar Chavez was “the most important Latino leader in the history of the United States during the twentieth century.” (Cesar Chavez Special Resource Study and

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Environmental Assessment (Draft Oct. 2011, Ch. 3, p. 38).) Cesar Chavez’s early social activism began at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church (now McDonnell Hall), where Father McDonnell inspired Cesar Chavez to become involved with the community service organization. Father McDonnell, the parishioners, and their meetings and organizing activities centered within Our Lady of Guadalupe Church (now McDonnell Hall). This community, these activities, and this location were instrumental in the initiation and development of Cesar Chavez into a nationally significant community organizer and leader, and which continued to serve as a touchstone for him. Therefore, the site is nationally significant because of its direct association with the history of the farm labor movement, which is one of Cesar Chavez’ crowning achievements.

• Building or site is “associated importantly with the lives of persons nationally significant in the history of the United States.” (36 C.F.R. § 65.4(a)(2).)

Cesar Chavez’ community organizing activities began with his introduction to Father McDonnell and his teachings and meetings held at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church (now McDonnell Hall). The Church provided the major inspiration and foundational support for Cesar Chavez’ work with the farm labor movement at its inception and continuously throughout Cesar Chavez’ lifetime. The building itself was the place of early gatherings related to Cesar Chavez and the community service organization. And the namesake of the building, Father McDonnell, was the teacher and mentor for Cesar Chavez and the work he did related to the UFW. Therefore, the site is nationally significant because of its direct association with the productive life of Cesar Chavez.

• The building or site “represents some great idea or ideal of the American people.” (36 C.F.R. § 65.4(a)(3).)

Religious freedom is a core principal of the United States Constitution, as is the right to assemble and make political speech. Cesar Chavez united these principals through his community and family, which were conjoined within the Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. Because of Chavez’ skills in organizing the community to move this structure to its current location, Father McDonnell was convinced that Cesar Chavez was a natural and skilled leader. This early example of Chavez’ leadership led to his introduction to Fred Ross and the CSO, and his training in political organization.

• Composed of integral parts of the environment not sufficiently significant by reason of historical association or artistic merit to warrant individual recognition but collectively compose an entity of exceptional historical or artistic significance, or outstandingly commemorate or illustrate a way of life or culture.

The nature of the life of a migrant farmworker is travel with the growing season. McDonnell Hall is one of many buildings and locations where Cesar Chavez did his work related to the CSO and the UFW. Cesar Chavez was central in the

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establishment of the building at this location, and the site ties in to many aspects of the life of Cesar Chavez. Collectively with the other buildings associated with him located in Delano, Keene and other areas of California and Arizona, this building provides a bigger picture of the life of Cesar Chavez as it is the impetus and very foundation of Cesar Chavez’ work as a community organizer .

VI. Resource Integrity

Properties that are proposed for designation as historical resources are also evaluated regarding the degree to which they retain their original structural integrity and appearance. Consideration is given to how and when the building’s uses and features may have been modified over the years. Some elements of McDonnell Hall have been slightly altered since the new Our Lady of Guadalupe Church was built. In any event, the record is clear: Cesar Chavez led the community to move this structure to its current location; and, Cesar Chavez’ seminal period of community activism began at McDonnell Hall and continued for many years.

Conclusions

Based on the research and analysis described above, the following conclusions are provided regarding the building (McDonnell Hall) and site located at 2020 East San Antonio Street in San José:

• McDonnell Hall is historically significant according to the NPS criteria for national significance and well exceeds the threshold by meeting four of the six criteria. • McDonnell Hall was the original gathering site of Cesar Chavez, and it is named after Father McDonnell who was an important mentor and teacher to Cesar Chavez. • Cesar Chavez’ seminal period of community activism and work for the UFW began at McDonnell Hall and continued for many years. • McDonnell Hall is nationally significant because of its direct association with the history of the farm labor movement. • Although some elements of the structure have been slightly altered, McDonnell Hall retains most of its structural integrity.

Attachment 1: Legal Standards Summary Attachment 2: Oral Historians’ Report

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Attachment 1

Legal Standards Applicable to McDonnell Hall Eligibility for National Park Status

The NPS is evaluating alternatives for designating sites significant to Cesar Chavez as part of the national park system, and also to determine whether such sites are eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places or as a National Historic Landmark.

The five alternatives identified in the NPS study include the following:

Alternative B: Would establish a national, integrated network of historic sites, museums and interpretative programs. This network would be coordinated with national, regional and local organizations.

Alternative E: Would involve the creation of a national historic park. It would incorporate nationally-significant sites in California and Arizona related to Cesar Chavez and the farm labor movement. Five sites have already been identified as nationally- significant. The Secretary of the Interior would be authorized to add significant associated sites or districts to the national historic park that would be owned and operated by park partners. McDonnell Hall, Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, in San Jose has been identified as a potential nationally-significant site, but further research is needed to assess its integrity and determine whether it meets National Historic Landmark criteria.

There are four criteria for determining eligibility for national park status:

1. it possesses nationally significant natural or cultural resources; 2. it is a suitable addition to the national park system; 3. it is a feasible addition to the national park system; and 4. it requires direct NPS management (vs. alternative protection by other public agencies or the private sector

With regard to the first criterion (national significance), the NPS uses the following four basic criteria, all of which must be met:

It is an outstanding example of a particular type of resource. It possesses exceptional value or quality in illustrating or interpreting the natural or cultural themes of our nation’s heritage. It offers superlative opportunities for public enjoyment, or for scientific study. It retains a high degree of integrity as a true, accurate, and relatively unspoiled example of a resource.

NPS evaluates national significance for cultural resources by applying the national historic landmarks criteria in 36 C.F.R. Part 65 (Appendix D). “Although assessments of national significance should reflect both public perceptions and professional judgments, the evaluations of properties being considered for landmark designation are undertaken by professionals, including historians, architectural historians, archeologists and anthropologists familiar with the broad range of the nation's resources and historical themes.” (36 C.F.R. § 65.4.)

1

Attachment 1

Sites and structures that “possess exceptional value or quality in illustrating or interpreting the heritage of the United States in history, architecture, archeology, engineering and culture and that possess a high degree of integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling and association” are considered to be nationally significant. (36 C.F.R. § 65.4(a)), and meet one or more of six additional criteria. McDonnell Hall has the potential to meet one or more of the following criteria:

(1) That are associated with events that have made a significant contribution to, and are identified with, or that outstandingly represent, the broad national patterns of United States history and from which an understanding and appreciation of those patterns may be gained; or

(2) That are associated importantly with the lives of persons nationally significant in the history of the United States; or

(3) That represent some great idea or ideal of the American people . . . . (36 C.F.R. § 65.4(b).)

It should be noted that the following types of properties are not normally eligible for designation: properties owned by religious institutions or used for religious purposes; structures that have been moved from their original locations; reconstructed historic buildings; and properties that have achieved significance within the past 50 years. However, these properties may still qualify if they meet at least one additional criterion, including the following:

(2) A building or structure removed from its original location but which is nationally significant primarily for its architectural merit, or for association with persons or events of transcendent importance in the nation's history and the association consequential; or

(3) A site of a building or structure no longer standing but the person or event associated with it is of transcendent importance in the nation's history and the association consequential; or

(8) A property achieving national significance within the past 50 years if it is of extraordinary national importance. (36 C.F.R. § 65.4(b).)

2

Attachment 1

490611

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Fr. McDonnell Hall and Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, CCsar Chavez Legacy Oral History Site Project San JosC, California A Project of Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Conducted by Guerra & McBane, LLC

Mrs. Rita ChAvez Medina DVD Interview & Transcript, 81221201 1

Mr. Rudolph Medina, Rev. Deacon Salvador Alvarez, Mr. Albert Muiioz DVD Interview (and comment by Rev Javier Reyes, ON)& Transcript

Mr. Rudolph Medina, Rev. Deacon Salvador Alvarez, Mr. Albert Muiioz Church Scrapbook Photos CD 81281201 1

Original Guadalupe Church, 1953- 1966,

Then became Fr. McDonnell Hall

The New Guadalupe Church Built 1967 CESAR CHAVEZ CHRONOLOGY SANTA CLARA VALLEY 2 SITES PRESERVATION PROJECT SANTA CLARA VALLEY COUNTY PARKS 8/21/2011 (revised)

1880s: Cesar Chavez's grandparents, Cesario (his namesake) and grandmother and children, left Mexico and the poverty of the hacienda system. They came through El Paso and went to Arizona where they established a freight business and homesteaded a quarter section of land in the Gila River Valley, in Yuma, ~rizona.'CCsar's father, Librado was 2 years old at the time of the crossing. He worked with his father and mother until he was 38 yrs old.2 He married Juana Estrada. Librado became a small business man: ran a grocery store, an auto repair shop and a pool hall 20 miles north of Yuma.

1927: CCsar Estrada Chavez born March 3 1''. The early years of the Depression did not drastically affect Chavez family. Saved from unemployment by large extended family that provided clientele for b~sinesses.~The Mexican community was comprised mostly of small landholders and farmers, all self sufficient. CCsar's father decided to expand his business in the middle of the depression to include a 40 acre parcel surrounding the store and to purchase the store he took a loan from a lawyer. Within a few years he could not make the payments, because he had extended too much credit to family and friends. An Anglo property owner, who had land on one side of Librado, put pressure on the lawyer to force Librado to sell his store to make partial payment on back taxes. Librado could no longer make the payments. The Chavez family moved in with Librado's mother, Mama Tella, who was I00 years old in 1937. She lived in an adobe about 1 mile from the old store. Cesario had died several years before. She owned 160 acres and the family was barely self sufficient: half in cash crops and half in grazing land.4 CCsar's mother Juana, passed on ideas of morals through Catholic faith and earliest training in philosophy of non-violence. There were 4 children: CCsar, Richard, Rita, Lenny, Vickie. Juana's patron saint was St. Eduvigis (Polish duchess of early Christian era, who became a Christian and gave up worldly possessions to poor).5Juana, on her saints day, would find needy people and help them out such as inviting many hobos (who were all white) to the house to give them a meal. Cesar learned sympathy for workers and poor through his mother. No church where he lived. Women in family took care of his Catholic education.

IDan La Botz, Cksar Chhez and La Causa (New York: Pearson Longman, 2006); Richard Garcia and Richard Griswold Del Castillo, Cksar Chhez: A Triumph of Spirit (Norman, Oklahoma: Oklahoma Press, 1995), 4. Garcia and Griswold Del Castillo, 4. ' Ibid. Ibid., 5. Ibid. Chavez's grandmother's religious teaching another moral influence. She taught Catechism and Church history in preparation of their 1 c~rnrnunion.~

Men in family instilled pride in Mexican Heritage. Uncle Ramon Arias taught him to read in Spanish. Great uncle read Mexican newspaper to him.'

1930s: At 6 years old, Chavez went to public school with sister Rita in Gila, River (school almost entirely Spanish speaking). All his teachers were Anglos and taught him in English. Chavez became Cesar when his sister Rita introduced him to the Anglo teachers as Cesario and they Anglocized his name. Chavez was a citizen.

Chavez experienced his 1'' discrimination in school in Arizona. They only spoke Spanish at home, like most pre WWII Mexican families. Cesar's uncle taught him how to read by reading Spanish language newspapers to him. At school students made fun of Chavez kids Spanish accent. Only allowed to speak English in school. "When we spoke Spanish, the teacher swooped down on us. I remember the ruler whistling through the air as its edge came down sharply across my knuckles."' Anglo students called him dirty Mexican. Another time when a teacher heard Chavez describe himself as Mexican, she insisted that he not use that word. She insisted that he was American. Learned early the conflict between Mexican ethnicity and American citizenship. Early years in Gila was a mixture of Mexican and Roman Catholic community and culture. The community was a model of social solidarity.9

The political legacy of the Mexican revolution was another influence on Cesar in Yuma. He learned through family stories and legends. Heard about the political corruption of the haciendas and his grandfather's stories of political corruption in El Paso, and the political activities of his father and relatives as they organized a power bloc in the Gila Valley in the 1930s. Chavez's father became influential within the Mexican community by assisting at fundraisers for candidates and encouraging to vote as a group for candidates he s~pported.'~

Local political events changed Chavez family, forcing them to join the stream of rural migrants west to California. Cesar's father still owed $4,080 back taxes and interest on his homestead. He was convinced that only a direct appeal to the governor could save them. She traveled to Phoenix to petition the governor, but with no results. A local banker who owned adjacent land refused to grant a loan even though Librado qualified for it under federal guidelines. Forced Chavez into bankruptcy and auction of land."

Ibid., 6. La Botz. 8 Garcia and Griswold Del Castillo, 6. 9 La Botz. 'O Garcia and Griswold Del Castillo, 7. " La Botz; Garcia and Griswold Del Castillo, 7. 1937: CCsar was 10 and his family was unable to pay property taxes, the state took legal possession of the land, but they were allowed to remain for another year. Librado and other relatives left Yuma to look for work in California. After several seasons away from home in California, Chavez clan still unable to raise the money to buy back the farm and had to sell it to the banker-grower for only $1,750."

1939: Chavez family left Arizona and began life as migrant farm workers." 250,000 migrants already living in California (Mexican, Dust Bowl Migrants, and African Americans (G&G, p. 8). Worked as farmworkers for next 10 years, migrating from Coachella throughout San Joaquin Valley. CCsar was a teenager, and took other jobs to supplement income. Exposed to wretched migrant camps, corrupt labor contractors, meager wages, bitter racism. One of 30,000 migrant families.14

Chavez exposed to union organizing in 1930s, through his father who joined several (National Farm Labor Union, The Tobacco Workers, The Cannery Workers, and the Packinghouse Workers). Also participated in strikes in 1930s an 1940s.'~

Worked in San Joaquin Valley but in off season lived in San Jose barrio of Sal Si Puedes. Only way for youth to get out of barrio during WWII was joining the military. Most of Sal Si Puedes residents worked in orchards which flourished in the region (not vineyards).16 Only way to leave was military, jail or death. After serving in the military during WWII, Cesar worked in apricot orchards."

1944: Cesar was 17 and joined the US Navy. Arrived in San Jose for bootcamp. Learned that many ethnicities and races faced discrimination. Sent to South Pacific. Got out of navy 1946.

1946: Chavez returned to his family in Delano and returned to work in the fie3lds. Got involved with NFLU (Ernesto Galarza)'~cotton strike. His father joined Galarza, and his family joined a car caravan of strikers and participated in huge open field meetings. He learned about st4rike issues. Chavez volunteered to sweep out union headquarter and did small jobs around the migrant camps. Strike ended after 2 weeks through mediation of the state's agricultural labor bureau.18

1947: established the Industrial Areas Foundation to train community leaders in poor neighborhoods to mobilize political power for social change.

l2 Garcia and Griswold Del Castillo, 7. 13 Fred Ross, Conquering Goliath: Cesar Chavez at the Beginning (Keene, CA: El Taller Grafico Press Book, 1989), 1-2. l4 Garcia and Griswold Del Castillo, 13. IS Ibid., 14-18. 16 Ross, 2. l7 Ibid. l8 Garcia and Griswold Del Castillo, 18-1 9. Began in Chicago. Funded by wealthy philanthropist Marshal Fields. After World War 11, targeted Mexican communities in California and sent Fred Ross to organize IAF in LA. Ross worked with the Roybal campaign, which formed the Community Service Organization. The CSO concerned with issues that affected the urban barrios: civil rights, voter registration, community education, housing discrimination, police brutality. In CA, Ross and Tony Rios succeeded in getting more than 15,000 new voters for 1949 election of Edward Roybal (2ndtime), 1'' Mexican American member of the LA City Council since 188 1 .I9

1948: At 2 1 years old Chavez married Helen ~abela.~'They 1" met at La Baritita Malt Shop in Delano when he was 15.~'They worked in San Joaquin Valley grapes, then moved to Crescent City (with their children), along with Richard (older brother), cousin, Rita and her family and other relatives and got job in lumber company for 1 % years. 22

1952: Cesar left Crescent City to move to San Jose. Had 8 children in total.

No church or priest in Sal Si Puedes. Fr. Donald McDomell arrived in Sal Si Puedes and went door to door and asked community to join in forming a congregation. Fr. McDomell, along with Fr. Thomas McCullough, had been sent y the Archdiocese of SF to work with Mexican residents (fmworkers and Braceros) in the San Joaquin Valley. Went from camp to camp, setting up portable altars and conducting open air confessions, ministering to the workers' spiritual needs. In San Jose, Fr. McDomell decided to try to teach farmworkers about the church's social doctrines on labor organizing and social justice, hoping they would being to organize themselves to improve their situation.23

Cesar's family regularly attended mass in the mission which began meeting in a resident's garage. Chavez soon became Fr. McDomell's friend and assistant. First doing work for the small church and then helping at mass at the Bracero camps and the county jail. Fr. McDonnell wanted to move the mission to a real church. As the congregation including the Chavez brothers to cut a dilapidated Puerto Rican Hall (which faced the back side of the property) in half and move it to its current location. Chavez and McDomeIl same age, yet became Cesar's mentor.24

The priest provided practical lessons on helping the community. Example: a young girl died. Rather than go to Catholic Charities, Fr. McDonnell suggested the church contribute to the burial. McDomell and Chavez went and claimed the body from the morgue, which called the California State Attorney General. The

l9 La Botz; Garcia and Griswold Del Castillo, 24. 20 Garcia and Griswold Del Castillo, 20. " Ibid., 19-20. 22 Ibid., 20-2 1. 21 Ibid., 23. 24 La Botz. Hospital would not let the 2 men use the elevator, so they had to carry the child down the stairs. This caused a back injury that left Chavez with a chronic back pain. Relatives bathed the body. Richard Chavez, CCsar's brother who recently died, made the coffin and drove it by wagon to the cemetery. Fr. McDonnell conducted the burial. The coast was $103. Learned to use the law and work collectively. It was through religion that Chavez learned community organizing.25

Chavez and Fr. McDonnell discussed the history of farm labor organizing in Ca and the church's position on unions. He discussed the situation of farm workers, demonstrating with photos that contrasted the situation of the wealthy to the situation of the poor. McDonnell also advised Chavez to read Senator La Follette's Committee Hearings in LA from 1940. These revealed how the Associated Farmers, with financing from banks, utilities and cops, used strikers and thugs to break up strikes in the late 1930s. Fr. McDonnell suggested CCsar read the papel encyclicals on labor (which said that workers had a right to join a labor union to improve their situation) and books on labor history, such as the teachings of St. Francis de ~ssisi.~~Fr. McDonnell became Cesar's intellectual mentor, guiding Chavez's reading and study. He used popular education techniques to teach semi-literate people in order to teach Chavez. McDonnell encouraged Chavez to read Louis Fisher's biography of Gandhi's independence movement that happened only a few years earlier in 1947. Gandhi used fasts and organized pilgrimages and campaigns of civil disobedience, refusing to obey unjust laws. Gandhi linked workers struggles to the cause of national liberation. Gandhi believed in "passive resistance" or non-violence civil disobedience. Chavez learned about Gandhi at the same time that Martin Luther King, Jr. studied Gandhi in theology class. Gandhi provided a theory of social action during the Cold War when social change through Communism and unions was taboo. Non-violence was attractive to liberals because it promoted change but did not change capitalist society like Communism or Socialism. Gandhi used the Indian philosophy of Satyagraha: truth and love and power were forces born of truth and love, which is non-violence. Gandhi used non-violent direct action to challenge the colossal power of the British Empire. 1,000 Indians challenged the British monopoly on salt by going down to the sea and making salt themselves illegally. Gandhi developed the use of the boycott. Indians spun their own thread and made their own clothes rather than import British textiles. Gandhi's campaigns involved 10s and 100sand affected the consciousness of millions. Gandhi's fasts and pilgrimages were like Mexican Catholic customs. Gandhi was a personal example of a social movement leader as moral guide and political leader. Chavez was also influenced by Henry David Thoreau's "On Civil Disobedience" and the Christian writings of ~olsto~.~~

Ross looking statewide to set up CSO chapters in major California cities. Spring 1952, Ross sponsored by Sociology Professor at SJSU and financed by Quaker

25 Ibid. 26 Garcia and Griswold Del Castillo, 23. '' La Botz. philanthropist Josephine Duveneck, a Quaker affiliated women living in Los Altos Hills. Originally the Fred Ross and the CSO met in Josephine's house. She then funded the development of a chapter of the CSO in San ~ose.~~The CSO was a civil rights-civic action movement among Chicanos with a reputation for militant and effective organizing in U.S. Ross had just established mother chapter in East LA. Brought to Eastside SJ, "Sal Si Puedes" or get out if you can.

Ross went to Fr. McDonnell and asked for list of Mexican Americans who might good leadership material. CCsar Chavez on the list.29Chavez suspicious of Anglos wanting to talk to him: police, social workers and academics. Sal Si Puedes was right in the path of a stream of college students coming from Berkeley and Stanford to write theses about the barrio. Nothing changed. They would become professors and their students would go to the barrio and write theses. Ross was told by Fr. McDonnell to talk to Chavez, who was involved with organizing Sal Si Puedes around the establishment of Guadalupe Church. Chavez had a reputation as a community leaders3' Fred Ross hung around Sal Si Puedes looking for Chavez. Chavez thought Ross was one of those researcher types, except Ross had a beat up car and wore wrinkled clothes. Ross came by Cesar's house several times, but CCsar did not want to meet with him. Chavez tried to avoid Ross, but Ross kept coming ba~k.~'~ossasked Chavez to get friends together to talk about community problems like polluted creek that was ignored by oliticians, poor housing conditions, workers poor conditions and long hours. 3Y

Richard Chavez lived across the street, so Chavez hid there. Helen Chavez felt that Fred Ross meant an opportunity and pointed to where Cesar was hiding.33

At the lS' house meeting Ross held at Chavez's house, Ross told of how he and The CSO exerted pressure on the LA judicial system when drunken police beat up Mexican prisoners in the "Bloody Christmas Case." Chavez hated racist practices of polices and was amazed by Ross' ~ork.~~~osssaid that Mexicans should organize their own communities and register to vote, then they would have an impact on politics (the African American Civil Rights tactic). Chavez had told his friends before the house meeting to drink and be rowdy and then kick Ross out of the house, but Chavez so entranced, he kicked his friends out and stayed to listen to Ross.

Ross was 42 year old when he met Chavez who was 27 years old. Chavez went with Ross to the next meeting. Chavez initially volunteered in voter registration

28 Stephen Pitti, The Devil in Silicon Valley: ivorthern California, Race, and Mexican Americans (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003). 29 Garcia and Griswold Del Castillo, 24. 30 La Botz. 3' ROSS,2. 32 La Botz. 33 Garcia and Griswold Del Castillo, 24. 34 La Botz. campaign. Worked 40 days straight and got 6,000 new voters registered. Ross made Chavez chairman of the voter registration drive.

Ross introduced Chavez to John Lewis and Saul Alinsky's methods of mobilizing the working class to exert social and political power and renegotiate workers' relationship to employers and the government. Between 1952- 1962 Chavez worked in political culture and adopted Alinsky's and Ross's organizing philosophy and strategies to the Mexican population (usin house meetings to work with people and change them one person at a time).38

1953: Chivez's work in voter registration brought more members to the Democratic Party. Republicans and big growers feared Mexican Americans becoming citizens and joining the Democratic Party and then pushing for labor laws that would hurt growers. The Republican Party told the FBI that Chavez was involved in Communist activities as a way to stop him. The Republican Central Committee feared Democratic controlled Mexican American Republicans challenged 1'' time Mexican American voters at the polls. Chavez sent letter to CA State Attorney General protesting Republican intimidation. Republicans accused Chavez of being a Communist. FBI agents summoned to interview him. Stories appeared in the local newspapers implying he had been influenced by the Communists. A few San Jose liberals (teachers, lawyers, social workers) began to support Cesar and challenge the ~e~ublicans.~'Chavez turned to the Catholic Church for help. Fr. McDonnell had Chavez explain to local Catholic priests what the CSO was and did and had the priests issue a statement that Chavez was not a Community. This taught Chavez to stay close to the Church and avoid Republican attackers. His best allies were in the Catholic Church and the liberal wing of the Democratic Party (such as CA State Senator Alan Cranston from Palo Alto).

CSO focused on voter registration and citizenship classes. Cesar worked as an unpaid volunteer and worked fulltime at a lumber yard. Laid off, so he worked full time as a volunteer for CSO. First established a service center where he could help people with their daily problems. Helped people and expected their help in return to build a strong ~r~anization.~~~havezand his sister Rita worked on the voter registration campaign and organized citizenship classes.39

a. While CCsar and his sister were on the SJ Chapter CSO executive board, one of the CSO Mexican executive board members(Fe1ix Leon), would not seat two African Americans who came to his restaurant even though 50 NAACP African Americans were members (led by U.C. Berkeley student Webster Sweet) of the chapter and the CSO constitution demanded racial

35 La Botz. j6 Garcia and Griswold Del Castillo, 25. 37 Ibid., 25-26. 38 Ibid., 27. 39 La Botz. equality. Rita, CCsar and another CSO Board member, Ernie Abeytia, called a meeting to discipline Felix Leon for not permitting African Americans to eat in restaurant. 7 of the Executive board resigned and 70% of CSO chapter resigned. The following Sunday, the former CSO leaders put out leaflets in Mexican Churches and supermarkets in English and Spanish saying "Rita Chavez and the CSO are a bunch of niggerlovers." The San Jose CSO Chap was reduced from 800 to 100. Chavez noted the poor Mexicans supported the CSO constitution and black equality, it was the middle class Mexican that left.40

b. Chavez director of CSO SJ Chapter 1 % years.41

c. Ross got permission to hire CCsar as full time organizer paid $35/week. Assigned voter registration drive in DeCoto (now Union City) in southern Alameda County), which was successful. Chavez became a statewide organizer.42Chavez organized residents to fight for neighborhood improvements, civil rights cases and police brutality. He organized chapters up and down the state, using the house meeting method developed by Fred Ross. In each town her held house meetings to bring a small number of people together to explain the strategy to build Mexican American political power through citizenship classes and voter registration. He would broaden in each local beyond the house meeting and elect officers and then move on to the next town.

d. Chavez then lobbied for Mexican American issues in Sacramento, fighting for old age pensions for noncitizens and application under the State Fair Employment Practices Commission.

1958 Alinsky asked Ross and Chavez to have the CSO organize a project in Oxnard. Alinsky was approached by Raplph Hellstein, president of the Packinghouse Workers Union, which organized lemon workers in Oxnard and Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. Chavez and his family moved to El Rio, the barrio of Oxnard. Began organizing and found out about the problems Mexican farmworkers faced. Chavez talked to Fred Ross about the CSO organizing farmworkers, not just middle class ~exicans.~~Chavez talked to Fr. McDonnell and Fr. Thomas McCullough about organizing farmworkers, but they discouraged him. To organize farmworkers required the backing of labor, the AFL-CIO.

1958 Fr. McDonnell and Fr. McCullough tried to convince Walter Reuther of the United Auto Workers and George Meany, pres. Of the AFL-CIO to invest in organizing farmworkers. They were unsuccessful.

40 La Botz. 4 1 Jacques Levy, Cesar Chavez: Autobiography ofLa Causa (New York: W.W.Norton & Co., Inc., 1975). 4' Garcia and Griswold Del Castillo, 28. 43 Ross, 1 ; La Botz. 1959: Fr. McCullough & Fr. McDonnell formed their own agricultural union, Agricultural Workers Association, headed by Mr. McCullough. CSO organizer Dolores Huerta helped AWA, but they did not believe in a woman organizer, so her husband and brother worked for AWA which Dolores coaching them.

Now AFL-CIO interested in invest inorganizing a farmworkers7union. Founded Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC). AFL CIO ex committee put Norman Smith, organizer for auto workers, in charge. Hired staff. Big lettuce strike over Braceo issue in Imperial Valley. Did not win, AFL-CIO began cutting funding.44

1961 : Chavez state executive director of CSO, but felt the CSO only addressed middle class Mexican issues, not farm labor issues. He stood up at CSO convention asking the CSO to undertake farm labor organizing, they voted him down so he resigned.45

Norman Smith replaced by A1 Green, trade unionist fiom Stanislaus County who relied on labor contractors to recruit dues paying members. Continued to or anize especially among Filipinos. Larry Itliong emerged as a leader for AWOC. 4% AWA folded and joined AWOC, and Smith offered job as organizer to Chavez.

1962: Chavez started the National Farmworkers Association (based on farmworker dues), not organized labor sponsorship.47

--~- 44 Garcia and Griswold Del Castillo, 32. 45 La Botz. 46 Garcia and Griswold Del Castillo, 32. 47 La Botz. Bibliography

Garcia, Richard and Richard Griswold Del Castillo. Ce'sar Chavez: A Triumph of Spirit. Norman, OK: Oklahoma Press, 1995.

La Botz, Dan. Cksar Chhvez and La Causa. New York: Pearson Longman, 2006.

Levy, Jacques. Cesar Chavez: Autobiography of La Causa. New York: W.W.Norton & Co., Inc., 1975.

Pitti, Stephen. The Devil In Silicon Valley: Northern California, Race, and Mexican Americans. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003

Prouty, Marco G. Cksar Chhvez, The Catholic Bishops, and The Farmworkers Struggle for Social Justice. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 2008.

Ross, Fred. Conquering Goliath: Cesar Chavez at the Beginning. Keene, CA: El Taller Grafico Press Book, 1989.

Santa Clara Valley Archdiocese Archives visit week of 8/8/2011 Fr. McDonnell Hall and Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, CBsar Chiivez Oral History Site Project

A Project of Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation

Conducted by Guerra & McBane, LLC 8/22/20 1 1

Mrs. Rita Chavez Medina Interview

b Play Interview Movie

b Read Interview Transcript (Print Transcript from Root Menu) Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-R.C. M. Interview

SANTA CLARA COUNTY PARKS & RECREATION CESAR CHAVEZ SITES ORAL HISTORY PROJECT Contracted by Guerra & McBane, LLC

Project Admin Suzanne Guerra and Margo McBane, Ph.D. Interviewee: Rita Chavez Medina (RCM) Interviewers: Margo McBane, Ph.D. (MM), Armando Catalan (AC) and Liliana Francisco (LF) Interview Date: August 22,20 1 1 Interview Location: Morgan Hill, California Videographer: Ema Kawarnoto Transcriber: Monica Gianera Audio-Editor: Margo McBane, Ph.D. Final DVD Producer: Keith Sanders Interview Length: 49 minutes Transcription Length: 24 pages

Interview Summary Sheet: Mrs. Rita Chavez Medina ties the history of her family and brother to the sites of the original Our Lady of Guadalupe Church (what is now Father McDonnell Hall) and the new site of the church in eastside San Jose, California. Her grandparents left Mexico during the Revolution of 19 10- 1920. They entered the U.S. through El Paso, Texas, where they lived briefly. Then they moved to Ajo, Arizona and finally bought a farm outside Yuma, Arizona. It was there they raised a family. Their children got married and raise their own family in the same region of Arizona; this included Rita's and Cesar parents who owned their own farm and also a grocery store. But they lost both during the 1930s due to back state taxes. In addition Rita and Cesar's father had suffered from heatstroke in Arizona and the doctor told them he needed to move to a cooler climate. The family joined the migrant path of farm workers in California, eventually landing in San Jose. Once they arrived, they did not know a soul. They initially lived in a garage in Sal Si Puedes, the Mexican barrio on the eastside of town, located near the foothill orchards. After a few months they moved to a two bedroom house on a foothill ranch, where they stayed until the end of harvest when they moved to Oxnard, California. For years they continued to follow the crops from Oxnard, up the San Joaquin Valley to San Jose and back to Oxnard. Finally the family permanently settled in San Jose in 1946. Rita only worked in one cannery, then switched over to orchard work, which she felt was much easier. During their migrancy both Rita and her brother Cesar met their future spouses in the San Joaquin Valley. Rita met her husband Joe Medina at a dance in Delano. CCsar worked in the Santa Clara Valley orchards until he joined the Navy during World War 11. After the war, Rita and her husband, Cesar and his wife, and Richard all moved up to Crescent City, to work in the lumber industry. After only a few years they all returned to San Jose around 1952. That was the year of the arrival in Sal Si Puedes of Father McDonnell, a Catholic priest sent by the San Francisco Archiocese to work with farmworkers. At that time, the closest Catholic Church to Sal Si Puedes was Five Wounds, a predominantly Portuguese church, located several miles away. Father McDonnell organized a new parish in Sal Si Puedes, initially meeting in a garage. The Chavez and Medina families were an integral part of that founding group. When the parish enlarged, the Chavez and Medina families, along with other parishioners helped to build a new church, Our Lady of Guadalupe, what is now Father McDonnell Hall. Father McDonnell identified CCsar as Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-R.C.M. Interview a potential community leader and became a mentor and teacher to him, introducing him to theories of non-violence and Gandhi, as well as Catholic theology. That same year, Fred Ross, a community organizer, arrived in Santa Clara County to establish a chapter of the Community Service Organization. He went to Father McDonnell and asked who to approach to set up house meetings in the community of Sal Si Puedes. Father McDomeli directed Ross to Chavez, who initially was reluctant to meet with the white organizer. In their first meeting, Cesar became fascinated with community organizing and joined the CSO, volunteering and then heading up the voter registration drive, which often organized meetings at the old Guadalupe Church (now Father McDonnell Hall).. Within a few months Ross hired CCsar as a paid staff person for the CSO, and Cesar got his sister Rita and his brother Richard to also volunteer for the CSO. Rita eventually headed up the voter registration drive and the citizenship class campaign for immigrants. Rita said that Cesar's method of teaching community organizing was to throw her into leading meetings or to sign her up to become a notary public or tax preparer for the CSO membership. All of this organizing took place among the membership of Guadalupe Church. Once Cesar decided to leave the CSO and begin the United Farm Workers Union, he continued to rely on support from Father McDonnell and from the parishioners of Guadalupe Church. Chavez7sreligious views were a critical part of his United Farm Workers Movement, and Guadalupe Church always served as a religious touchstone for him throughout his life. Sanra Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sires Project by Guerra & ~McBane,LLC-R. C.M. Interview

SANTA CLARA COUNTY PARKS & RECREATION CESAR CHAVEZ SITES ORAL HISTORY PROJECT Contracted by Guerra & McBane, LLC

Project Administrators: Suzanne Guerra and Margo McBane, Ph.D. Interviewee: Rita Chavez Medina (RCM) Interviewers: Margo McBane, Ph.D. (MM), Armando Catalan (AC) and Liliana Francisco (LF) Interview Date: August 22,201 1 Interview Location: Morgan Hill, California Videographer: Ema Kawamoto Transcriber: Monica Gianera Audio-Editor: Margo McBane, Ph.D. Final DVD Producer: Keith Sanders Interview Length: 49 minutes Transcription Length: 24 pages

Interview Transcript:

MM: Why don't you state your name, age and where you were born.

RCM: My name is Rita Chavez Medina and I was born in Yuma, Arizona on August 2 1, 1925. I am 86.

MM: Wow! Ok, and where were your parents from. I guess what I am trying to ask is what generation came from Mexico?

RCM: My mom and my dad were both from Mexico, Chihuahua, the state of Chihuahua.

MM: And when did they come here?

RCM: My dad came in 1888 to the US and my mom came in 1891.

MM: Why did your dad come?

RCM: My grandfather, because of the Revolution going on in Mexico, so he brought all the family to the United States and then my mother's family also followed.

MM: To Yurna, Arizona?

RCM: Well, they lived in different places, first they lived in El Paso, Texas, then they moved to a little place called Ajo, like garlic, in Arizona but recently they did live mostly in Yuma. Actually it was in the town Yuma, in north Gila Valley where they had the farm, it's about 26 miles north of Yuma.

MM: And is that where you grew up? Santa Clara County Parkr & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-R.C.M. Interview

RCM: That's where we grew up.

MM: In Yuma. And then what.. .

RCM: Actually it was called Laguna Dam, or Gila, for the Gila River, but its like a farm country place, we never really lived in the town of Yuma, never did, in the city of Yuma, no we never did. We just lived on the farm.

MM: And what were your parents doing there?

RCM: Well my dad owned the farm, so it was all farming, everything was farming.

MM: When you were born how long had your parents been there?

RCM: Well they got married in 1924, I was born in 1925 so, well you know, but they had been there for years. I don't know the date exactly that they established in Arizona, in Yuma, that they never left, I think it was 19.. .during the First World War, 1919 or 19 18 or something like that.

MM: And your grandma lived there too?

RCM: Yeah, my grandma and my grandpa too but he died before. They all lived a long life on my dad's side of the family, over 95. My dad lived to be 101, my mom 99 %, we wanted her to, she couldn't make six more months, she died before 6 months before she became 100. CCsar died young, Cesar died real young. He was only 66. He was very young.

MM: Very very young. Why did they leave the farm in Yuma?

RCM: They were losing the farm because of property tax for the state I think, the state, my dad could not pay them, so they had to sell the farm. But mostly the reason that my dad got sunstroke two times. So the doctor told him, "Mr. ChBvez, you have to leave Arizona and go to a place where it is cool. Otherwise another sunstroke and you aren't going to make it." Mostly that was the reason, I think. Then of course we lost the farm and all that.

MM: That was during the depression?

RCM: Yes.

MM: You came to California at that time?

RCM: Uh huh.

MM: And when did you come to San JosC? When did your family come to San Jose?

RCM: In 1938 we came to San Jose. Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-R.C.M Interview

MM: And why?

RCM: Because there was more work here, you know, apricots, grapes, chemes, and we were like migrant workers, farm workers, you know, so we were following the crops.

MM: Did you know people in San Jose?

RCM: Nobody, we never knew anybody.

MM: So it was just part of the path that you were going on.

RCM: Uh huh. So people would say, "Go to San Jose, there's a lot of work." And you know "For your family." So we all worked as a family so that is why we came.

MM: How many were in the group that came? How many were in the family?

RCM: Us? Five children and my mom and my dad.

MM: No cousins?

RCM: No, no, no. They would come later and stay with us but they would leave, they would go back to Arizona, they would be here for the summer and then they would go back. They would work the summer crops and then they would leave.

MM: When you first came to San Jose what kind of.. .where did you live? Where did you settle initially?

RCM: The first day we got to San Jose we were living in the car. There was no place to live, we were looking and looking and all where we could find a place. And finally my mom went door to door, you know, to see if they had a room or something and so we found this young, no older man, he was really good, he said "I have a garage. You could live in the garage if you want to." So that's the first place we lived in San Jose, in a garage in the back of his house. All of the family was there in the little garage.

MM: And what street was she knocking on?

RCM: Summer. It used to be called Sal Si Puedes, they called it Sal Si Puedes. Have you heard of the barrio, Sal Si Puedes? It was Summer St. and she finally found this man that said "Oh yeah, you can come in with your children" because I was the oldest, I was 13, the other ones were all younger you know, and so we lived there, I can't remember how long, then we found a grower up in the hills, up in Alum Rock. And he said "No, come work with me and I will give you a house where we could live." And we moved to the house. We lived in the garage I think 2 or 3 months, something like that, picking apricot.

MM: So you would go out every.. ..How would you find work? Would you go and find a contractor or would the contractors come to the neighborhood? Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-R.C. M. Interview

.CM: People would say "Go here, they need people to pick or cut apricots, they need people to do prunes" or whatever it was going on but we found that grower and we did give us a place to live and it was a real nice house that he gave us to live in.

MM: How big was it?

RCM: It only had 2 bedrooms but it was nice.

MM: Was there indoor water?

RCM: Yeah.

AC: How long did you stay in the house?

RCM: We stayed with him until about December when all the crops were done, and then we moved to Oxnard, and we would just follow the crops, back and forth, back and forth.

MM: So you just came back here, you didn't have a house that you came back to?

RCM: No, we didn't settle really in San Jose until 1946, we used to come and go, come and go, come and go.

MM: And always to the same neighborhood?

RCM: Uh-huh, almost.

MM: And you came back to work though?

RCM: To work, yes, to work.

MM: And your mom worked in the canneries?

RCM: Yes, she did one year.

MM: In the Mayfair Cannery?

RCM: I can't remember, no I think it was the Sunset, Sunsweet or Sunset, something sun. She worked there in 194 1.

MM: What kind of work were you doing?

RCM: In the.. ..

MM: You, Rita, where were you working? Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-R.C.M. Interview

RCM: In the fields, yeah. I didn't go to the cannery until 1946, which was worse than the fields, the cannery is hard work, really hard work.

MM: What cannery were you working in?

RCM: It was called the US Canning Company. And there were other canneries too.

MM: What were you doing in the cannery? Line work or.. .

RCM: We worked on the machine, cutting, cutting, cutting the fruit. You just put the fruit, and it cuts automatically and then we did peaches, pears, tomatoes, everything, string beans, spinach, whatever came, we were ready to work, so I did all that. Same thing in the fields, I did everything except I didn't do beets or watermelon or cantaloupe, that was hard work, but the rest I did.

MM: Those are heavy crops.

RCM: They were too heavy for me.

MM: And so where were the fields? They were all in the foothills on the eastside?

RCM: All of the shopping centers like Valley Fair, those were fields. Over there, all of those were fields, they were all orchards.. .Evergreen College, we worked in Evergreen College a lot doing apricots, now its Evergreen College, you know. All those shopping centers? They were nothing but orchards. Valley Fair and all over there in Saratoga and all that? There was nothing over where those shopping centers are. Everything was just apricots, cherries, peaches, pears, all kinds of fruits.

MM: But you didn't work in grapes here, did you?

RCM: No, grapes were in the valley. They don't have too many grapes here, like the valley. And we did a lot of tomatoes in Sacramento, that area over there, too.

MM: When you said you came back and permanently settled in 1946, where did you settle then and why did you come back permanently?

RCM: Well, we always liked San Jose but there wasn't always work and there wasn't work for us in the winter in San Jose because all the fruit was gone but then in 1946 we started working in the cannery, my brother worked in the can company so it wasn't the field anymore, agriculture, it was more like we graduated to the cannery, which was worse. That's why. But my dad would still go work in the fields, they would go work on their own.

MM: Is that where Cesar was working, mostly in the orchards? Sanra Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-R.C. M. Interview

RCM: Well, then he left for the navy, you know. When he came back he went to San Jose State for a while but he just couldn't finish because, you know, no money, so he went back to working in the fields and then he started working in a packing house and stuff like that that wasn't the field anymore, where they pack the fruits and vegetables.

MM: And then he moved up to Crescent City?

RCM: No, we lived in Crescent City too.

MM: The whole family went?

RCM: No, just the 3 of us, Richard, Cesar and I, and our families. Nobody else went.

MM: Rita, when did you get married?

RCM: We got married in 1948.

MM: And who did you marry?

RCM: My husband's name was Joe Medina.

MM: And how did you meet?

RCM: Well I met him in Delano at a dance, I remember that night, we danced the whole dance and Cksar was very very.. .watching us like a hawk, he was like "who is that guy you are dancing with?" "I don't know." I didn't know who he was, we were just dancing. He was from Mexico too but he had been here for a long time also. So I said "I don't know, I don't even know his name, we just danced you know. We didn't have much conversation." He said, "I have never seen you here before." I said, "We were lucky. My mom wouldn't let us go to the dance, we were lucky if we went twice a month and sometimes she wouldn't let us go at all, they were very strict with us, really strict.. ..so I said that's why you don't see me here because I don't come that often. But it happened then. We always asked but my mom would say "No, you are not going." So that was it, we didn't go. I was already 2 1,22 but we had to do what our parents said. Today kids say, "Oh I'm 18 and free." Well, not with my parents. Anyway, that Saturday we wanted to go again. I said, "I want to see if I could see that guy again." He was a good dancer. That is what attracted me. Then my sister asked my mom, she goes, "Let's ask our dad." Even though my mom was the one that said, "Yes or no." So my sister asked my dad and he said, "Go ask your mom." So she goes "Mom, dad said we could go." So she lied but we went to the dance and I met my husband again! And that is the way that it worked. She still remembers and says, "I gotta go to confession all my life because I lied to my mom." But we wanted to go the dance so bad, and she said, "My dad said we could go." I don't think my mom ever knew that wasn't true. She would have got us bad, she was very strict. We always talk about that, especially the day that we buried my brother Richard, they baptized my sister Vicky and we went to have a dinner at the niiia's house, you know the lady that after you are baptized. And my mom says, "You know, you eat Santa Clara Counv Park & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-R.C. M. Interview

what I serve you and you don't ask for no more." So we said OK, we knew that. So when the lady would ask, "You want some more?" Cesar and I said no, but Richard said, "I want some more." Oh...my mother almost ate him with her eyes, she was really mad. Anyway, they went and cleaned the kitchen and everything but she never forgot about it, an hour or 2 later she goes, "Richard do you want peanuts?" And he goes, "Yeah, I want peanuts." He was just 4 years old. She took him in the living room and gave him good peanuts. "And when I tell you, then you to stop.'' And he ate a lot of peanuts. So we tease him a lot with peanuts. So we were going to put peanuts in his coffin. We always used to tease him about this. He said, "That's why I don't like peanuts." But she never forgot nothing, she didn't let us get away with anything. They were very strict.

MM: They were very strict. Your husband wasn't a Bracero was he?

RCM: No, no. He just came on his own and then he became an American citizen right away. So no he was not a Bracero. He was just a young guy, actually a little guy that wanted to come to the U.S. and he never went back.

MM: So the three of you and your families went up Crescent City to work in lumber. Why did you come back to San Jose?

RCM: Cksar and them, they came back to San Jose. I don't know, they just didn't want to stay there anymore, they wanted to come do something else, I guess, I don't know. We, my husband and I, because one of my daughter's health, the weather over there wasn't good for her. So the doctor told me, "Your daughter needs a place where there is a lot of sun." My oldest daughter. So, then we moved back.

MM: And that was in 195 1 or 52, or something like that.

RCM: 1952.

MM: And what is lumber like compared to agricultural work?

RCM: I don't know much about the lumber.

MM: Oh, you didn't work.. . .

RCM: No, no, no, that's just men's work. I didn't work anymore after I got married. I said, "Oh I am going to go work." And my husband'said, "No, you are not going to work." Because I had bought a bedroom set when I was younger and paid it a dollar a day, a week. And when I married him I said, "We don't have to buy a bedroom set, we don't have to buy one." And when we went to pick up the bedroom set, my mom said, "You got married and have a husband? He'll buy your furniture." And she wouldn't let me take the fbmiture. I got the furniture when she died, she never gave it to me. So my husband would say, "So you're going to work because you're mom would say your husband isn't man enough to support you. No soy hombre. No, uh-uh, you're not working." And he never let me work until my oldest daughter was going to college and I said, "I'm going to Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-R.C. M. Interview

work, I don't care what my mother says because you can't afford to put her through college just with one check." We already had 5 kids and I said, "I'm going to work. I don't care what my mother says."

MM: So what was the work that you went to?

RCM: I worked in the cannery off and on in the winter at night. But I went to work at Electronics.

MM: Ok, so you have stayed in San Jose since 1952.

RCM: Oh yeah, we stayed in San Jose after we got back from Crescent City and never moved back again.

MM: So what were the conditions like in Sal Si Puedes at that time in 52 when you all came back?

RCM: We didn't go back to Sal Si Puedes.

MM: Oh you didn't?

RCM: No, my mom and dad had bought a house already, so we stayed in a little house in the back so we stayed there until we found our own place. No we never went back to Sal Si Puedes.

MM: And Cesar didn't go back to Sal Si Puedes?

RCM: No he did live there one time, once, they had three kids already and he lived there when he first started the CSO.

MM: In 1952?

RCM: Yeah.

MM: Was the community interested in forming the congregation?

RCM: Oh yes, yes, because the closest church was the one that was over in Santa Clara, it was a Portuguese church.

MM: Five Wounds?

RCM: Yeah, Five Wounds. Everybody could go but it was mostly owned by the Portuguese community.

MM: I was looking, because in the records of the Archdiocese they said that Father McDonnell was actually stationed as a Vicar at St. Patrick's Church. Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-R. C.M Interview

RCM: Probably, probably. I don't know where he was.

MM: Because it was just a mission, it wasn't a full fledge church, Guadalupe, at that point, it was just a small church. So how did you all meet Father McDonnell? Did he come to Cesar's house?

RCM: He came to our houses. He go to all the houses and make sure that all of the people.. .He would make us pray every time he came. One day he was coming and my husband goes, "Oh Father McDomell is coming?" So he covered himself. He said, "Jose." He got the rosary and he was covering himself. I said, "Don't ever do that with Fr. McDomell or he will make you.. .We got to pray." He had covered himself, for being mean he had found you. He was a very good priest, very good.

MM: So Father McDonnell is making your husband feel guilty

RCM: Oh yeah, he took the covers and said, "Jose, we are praying with the rosary. See." And he never did it again. Because he would come, knocking on the door saying, "Here I am." He helped a lot of people.

MM: And so what was your impression of Father McDonnell?

RCM: Well, to me, we had seen a lot of priests off and on because we didn't go to church too much in a way because we were always working on Sunday. You work in the fields and there are no holidays and no weekends. You can't, you gotta work everyday until the crop is done. So the few times I would go to church then he is the one that I saw more steady, we really went.

MM: And so you saw him more because.. .

RCM: Oh yeah, and he would talk about what he wanted to do with the church and that he wanted to make a big church because that little garage where we met, sometimes the floor was kinda wobbly but we were there you know, and benches, people brought benches and chairs, everybody helped in the community.

MM: So who made the benches?

RCM: I don't know, people just brought them, they owned them and they owned the chairs and just brought them for people to sit on.

MM: But it was growing, so you outgrew the garage?

RCM: Yes, so then when they built the church they had benches, we call it the hall but you know, everybody helped because they wanted a church close by because the closest one was Five Wounds, and a lot of people did not have a way of going way over there. Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-R.C. M. Interview

MM: Was it an issue also because the other church was more Portuguese?

RCM: No, no. It was because it was far and a lot of people had no way to get there. Not everybody had a car you know.

MM: So who helped build the church that is now Father McDonnell Hall?

RCM: I already told you.

MM: I know but we don't have it on tape.

RCM: My dad, my brother CCsar, my brother Richard, my brother Lenny, my husband and a lot of other parishioners, but I don't remember their names. Some of them have died already.

MM: It was build around 1952?

RCM: Um-hum.

MM: And how long did it take to build, do you know?

RCM: No, I don't remember know how long it took to build. I was too busy with my kids but I know I would take them water during the day because it was so hot, I would take them ice water. . ..My dad and my brothers. Not only me but my sister-in-law did to. We all used to take them water, because it was pretty hot when they were out there working, especially on top of the roof. After they got in, it was different. But when they when were working on the roof it was real hot.

MM: But they are also trying to work in the fields too?

RCM: Yeah, they did too on their time off, whenever they could, Saturdays and Sundays.

MM: And Father McDonnell was building as well? He was up on the roof?

RCM: I don't remember him being up on the roof but he would help with whatever.

MM: OK. So it actually was all built by the congregation?

RCM: Yes, uh huh.

MM: So there was no outside people.

RCM: I don't really know for sure, I don't remember.

MM: Inside, the benches and all were built by the people, by your family?

RCM: No, I don't think so. They didn't build benches. Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-R.C. M. Interview

MM: Do you remember the first services, the masses, that were done there? You said you remembered it because of your daughter?

RCM: No, my daughter was at the other church.

MM: Oh at the other church.

RCM: This one, I can't remember exactly the date but I remember that we were all excited, there were a lot of weddings, all of my kids were baptized there, they did their communion there, most of them got married there too. Not at the new church. But here, they baptized three or four of my children. And they had really good programs during Christmas, they helped a lot of children, with toys and candy and stuff. They had a good program when Father McDomell was around.

MM: But he was only there until the early 60s?

RCM: Gee, I can't remember.

MM: Because I was looking at the records and a new priest came in around 1962?

RCM: Well they came to help him too. I can't remember exactly the date he left.

MM: I think the man's name was Soto.

RCM: Yeah, because they had one that spoke Spanish for the Spanish mass.

MM: Did Father McDonnell speak Spanish?

RCM: He spoke Spanish a lot but they had another priest to do the Spanish mass.

MM: And what kind of influence did Father McDonnell have on Cesar in terms of educating him or teaching him about community organizing or.. .

RCM: I don't know exactly how he felt about it, I never asked him because there was another man that really helped.. .

MM: Fred Ross. But Father McDonnell.

RCM: Father would do like in the religious ways, you know.

MM: Because he was very much interested in non-violence and had him read Gandhi and people like that. Did he promote that with other people in the parish?

RCM: I don't know what he did with other people, I only know what he did with our family. Santa Clara Counry Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-R.C.M. Interview

MM: But he didn't approach you or other people?

RCM: Not really, not directly like that, like he did CCsar.

MM: Why did he pick CCsar?

RCM: I don't know. I think he thought, he knew that he had something, what do you call it, he knew that he was going to do something good, I think. He went directly to him because there were a lot of other people involved in community issues but they were not so, dedicated I should say like he was.

MM: So Cesar was dedicated in terms of that he was volunteering to help build the church so much.. .how did he get the indication of how dedicated he was? Because everyone was helping.. .

RCM: My mom always told us different stories about the Bible, she didn't know how to read or write but she knew a lot about the Bible, because she had a stepfather that knew the ...Bible in and out and he would let them. They never went to church, how would they go to church, they didn't even have a horse to get to church so he would read the Bible to them and she would read it to us and then we started going on our own.

MM: And it was Father McDonnell that told Fred Ross about CCsar?

RCM: I don't know if it was him. I don't know who told Fred, I know that Fred just came to CCsar, maybe he did, I don't know.

MM: And so what influence, obviously he had a huge influence on, Fred Ross had on Cesar, but how is that tied to the church? Did they use the church for the CSO?

RCM: No, I don't think so.

MM: There was no activities around.. . .

RCM: Not directly related to the church that I can remember, no, it was mostly in houses in the community, we had house meetings.

MM: Did you help organize some of those house meetings?

RCM: Oh, I always went to those meetings. He never let me rest! "Come on let's go." "I don't.." "Yes, you know, come on let's go." But we had never really been active you know in the community because we were never involved in anything, just mostly the church, you know. He was the one that made me be a real good community service organizer or whatever and now my kids are following everything. They follow, all my children and grandchildren too. I worked really hard with him in CSO. Santa Clara Counv Park & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-R.C. M. Interview

MM: I was going to say, what role did you have in the CSO? You were on the executive board weren't you? San JosC chapter?

RCM: And I became president of the board too, or of the chapter I should say, one year I became president of the chapter. He used to make me do, ay, everything. One thing that . . .I will never forget is we were at a board meeting one night and see, the members would pay their quota for the year and they would be a member, $3.00 a year. We used to do all the immigration papers. I was in charge of the immigration committee and one day he goes, "You know what? We need a notary public. Because they come here and we don't charge them but then they go to notarize their papers and they have to pay a notary, so we need a notary public." So we were all going to look for a notary public. It was Friday night. Saturday morning he comes over to the house. I said, "Sit down and have coffee." I was feeding breakfast to my family. And he says, "You know Rita I found a notary public." And I said, "Overnight?" And he says, "Uh-huh, I found them." I sat down to have my breakfast. I said, "Who did you find?" And he says, "You." I said, "Oh no, I don't know nothing and I'm going to go to jail for you." To make a long story short before I knew it I was in front of a judge and I got sworn in and I got my bond and I got my book and that's it. For 28 years I have been a notary public then I gave it up, I said, "No, no more." For 28 years I worked with him and so I was the notary republic for the CSO. And also when he started the union, the Farm Workers Union, he called me one day. "Rita there is going to be a meeting at your house." Because you know my house was his house, everything was there for the donation that we would give to the strikers. He said, "It is going to be at your house tonight." I said, "Oh, you know, my house is your house." He said, "Just have coffee or whatever, there's going to be preachers, there is going to be priests, there is going to be the adult education department teachers, he mentioned. "Oh there are going to be a lot of people are going to be there." "Ok, what time?" "Seven." And he was giving me all kinds of instructions. I said, "What time are you coming? He said, "Oh no, I'm not going to be there, you are going to run the meeting." I said, "No, no." He said, "Yes, you know how to run the meeting, I'll see you later." Well, it did went really good, not that I knew how to run the meeting but everyone else knew so I mean everything went good. Actually we were trying to get socks for the marchers, the big march in 1966 from Delano to Sacramento. White socks, just white and it went good because everybody there collected just tons and tons of pairs of white socks. We had boxes lined up, you just couldn't believe it. Anyway he called me that night and asked, "How was the meeting?" And I said, "Nobody came, not even one person.'' "No, I can't believe that no one came." "No, no one came." I just couldn't help it, I started laughing, I just couldn't help it. I couldn't lie, he said, "Don't scare me." I said, "Well you scared me, you made me run a meeting and I don't know nothing about meetings." And he said, "oh you did good." He always made me do things like that, I never knew I could.

AC: He believed in you.

RCM: He did, he always believed in me. My son is just like his uncle because he worked ...with him a lot you know. He worked for 17 years he worked with the Transit and then Cesar told him, "Ok, now you are going to have to go into the office and become an officer of Santa Clara Counry Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-R.C.M. Interview

the union." So he tried and did, he won. Now he was nothing but union like his uncle. Now he works for BART.

MM: In terms of Cesar going to church, attending, because we have to tie a lot of this history back to the church in order for this to be significant. So how long did CCsar stay with the CSO here in San JosC?

RCM: What year did he leave? Because he became the national.. ..

MM: It seemed like from what I was reading that he was only president here of the chapter here for a year.

RCM: He never was president.

MM: Oh, he wasn't president?

RCM: No, never.

MM: Oh really? Well it says in there he was.

RCM: No, he was never president, just the organizer

MM: Ok, it sounded like he was here for about a year and a half.

RCM: Oh no, it was longer than that. I think he left in 50 ...

MM: And then they sent him to Oxnard and that was '58.

RCM: I think he left in '56 or '57, it was longer than '52, way longer.

MM: So he stayed here, he was just organizing all over the state?

RCM: It was all over the state, he was still living here but then moved to Oxnard and then to .

MM: In terms of the church, was he continuing to go to the church?

RCM: Oh yes, yes.

MM: And did he rely on Father McDonnell for advice during this time? He seemed like Father McDonnell was a mentor for him.

RCM: He was but I don't know exactly what they talked about or anything.

MM: Oh, he didn't talk to you about that? Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-R.C. M.Interview

RCM: No. But I know he did talk a lot to Father McDonnell about different things, especially about religion, because he made a crusade.

MM: The crusade?

RCM: The crusade, it's something you do in the Catholic Church when you really become a member of a church, a cursillo, you know.

MM: But Father McDonnell went on to help organize farm workers around the early '60s with Dolores Huerta and Father McCullough? Did you know Father McCullough?

RCM: I knew Father McCullough. I didn't know.. . ..

MM: When Cesar was started his ideas, he was thinking about it, they actually started something on the.. .

RCM: Oh I never knew that.

MM: Ok, ok.

RCM: Dolores did start organizing until Cesar always started, then she started. She never started on her own as far as I know. She was still with the CSO.

MM: Yeah right. No they were just talking to her about it. They were trying to think about it.

RCM: Maybe.

MM: What other kinds of activities took place that were related to CCsar other than attending church? Were there any other community activist activities out of the church that Cesar was involved in? He didn't do stuff with the CSO at the church?

RCM: I don't think so.

MM: He didn't have fundraisers?

RCM: Not at the church. He did fundraisers but not at the church, as far as I know. We did a lot of voter registration at the church.

MM: Oh you did?

RCM: Uh-huh. We did all the voter registration at the little McDonnell Hall.

MM: And that was when he was working with CSO?

RCM: Beginning the CSO. Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-R.C. M. Interview

MM: Because he was head of the voter registration drive.

RCM: Uh huh, we did a lot of.. ..all of the churches but we started here at McDonnell Hall.

MM: And then you spread out to other Catholic churches or all churches?

RCM: Yes, well we had a lot of people working, a lot of voter registrars they were helping in other churches. But we were mainly here in McDonnell Hall. Every year voter registration and we registwed 40,000, I don't know how many.

MM: How long did that go on?

RCM: Well the first year we went for that election and then every year we would continue doing the same. Every year with an election we would do it again.

MM: And what was the response, I heard he got into some trouble with the Republicans for that voter registration.

RCM: Well they didn't like it of course because most everybody that we registered were Democrats. Most everyone was Democrats. I don't remember, maybe one or two Republicans, but most were all Democrats. So of course they didn't like it. What do they like anyway?

MM: But they were using the anti-Communist tactic of saying.. .

RCM: Oh yes, they always said he was a communist, all the time. So my mom and dad . . .got so scared. I would say, "Mom, don't worry about it, don't worry about it, it's not true so I'm not worried." So when I used to hear bad news, Cesar would say, "That's good Rita, they are giving us publicity, that's good that they are talking about me this and that, don't worry about it." He always told me. Because he got, there were people, grower people that were after him. They wanted to kill him, because he came to stay with me one time. He called me and said, "I have to talk to you and Joe." That was my husband. And when he came, he was a vegetarian so I always had to have veggies for him. And then he talked to us. He said, "There is somebody after me." I said, "Oh God don't tell me." I was so scared and he goes, "Yes, so I am going to stay here for a few days." He had those dogs, you know those German Shepherd dogs that he had guarding him and they told him, the US Treasury warned him and they told him there was this guy that did dynamite and they said, "Watch your cars because they usually like to put dynamite in cars." Oh my God I just didn't know what to do, none of this had ever happened to our family, and all this was happening with him. Oh my God. So our phones were tapped, they were always calling on the phone and would say this is so and so. I would say, "We don't know Cesar. Who is that Cesar, we don't know him." And stuff like that because we knew they were trying to.. . . Well, he had been there about 3 or 4 days and they caught him in Gilroy. It was real close. They caught the guy. So we went to the garage and put the dogs in. It was overnight and they were his guards. It was really bad, to me I was so scared. He said, "Don't worry, nobody is ever going to get me. The way I'm going to die is, I'm going to Santa Clara Counv Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sires Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-R. C.M. Interview

be sleeping or sitting down or walking." And he died in his sleep. He knew it I guess because he always told me, "Don't worry, nobody is going to come after me. I am not going to die that way." He always told me. "I am never going to die that way. I am going to die sleeping, sitting, or walking."

MM: One of the things that we were asked was to interview your son. Rudy? And I wondered if you had any ideas of questions we should ask him? I'm not sure how he knew the site and Cesar, if you had suggestions of things to ask him?

RCM: I don't know, I think he would be the only one that would know more because he did work a lot with Cesar doing contracts for the farm workers because he worked for the Transit and the union and they would lend him every Thursday to help Cksar do contracts. He is my son, but he knows a lot about contracts. So he would help his uncle do contracts in Salinas, to get growers to sign with the union.

MM: Is that related to the site though? To Guadalupe Church?

RCM: No, no, they were doing this in Salinas. Rudy was baptized there, my son. And they went to church when they lived there, communion, confirmation, you know. All that stuff.

MM: Was Father Boyle involved with the site at all?

RCM: Not that I know of, maybe he did come but I never knew him then too much, maybe he would come when Cesar would come to church here, some of the priests would come with him but I can't remember Father Boyle. It's kind of far.. .

MM: It was a long, long time ago.

RCM: But he was involved with the union, a lot.

MM: Yeah, Father Boyle was. Were you, once CCsar started setting up the Farm Workers Union, what role did you take with the Farm Workers Union?

RCM: No, I only helped with whatever it was. My house, when they had the boycott? My house was the place to collect donations, any kind of donations: food and money. And that how I helped. I helped local, I never went out like the other people did for the boycott, no I never went out.

MM: I was just curious because the boycott, the workers on the boycott lived in Sacred Heart. How come they weren't more involved in Guadalupe Church? Do you know at all?

RCM: They needed have a place, a bigger place to house everybody.

MM: Oh because it was a convent at Sacred Heart. Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-R.C.M. Interview

RCM: Yeah, they didn't have anyplace to house people, they still don't. They don't have anyplace to house people. Father, what was his name? I forgot his name. He was real active to, real young. I told CCsar, go to Sacred Heart, they have housing, they have the school you know. So that is where they used to house the fmworkers.

MM: So were all the Catholic churches working together to help CCsar?

RCM: I believe so, a lot of churches did, a lot of priests, a lot of nuns, a lot of people helped him.

MM: But the mother church in helping was at Guadalupe?

RCM: Yes, and the little hall behind. Because that is where we started, that is where he started, I still call it McDomell Hall.

MM: Because that's where he met Father McDonnell, that's where he met Fred Ross when he was attending that church.

RCM: Yes except of course Fred Ross went to his house and Cesar didn't want anything to do with him, he said, "Naw, he's just a white guy, I don't know what he wants to do with us, I don't believe in him." We did a play, it was called "When the Eagle Flies" and all that comes out. We just did it last year, you should have come, we are going to do it again and it's just really about us on stage, the whole family. I cried for the whole month and we had it at San JosC City [College], at there theater and it was really, the actors were really good.

MM: Liliana, we should see about getting it at San Jose State.

RCM: Yeah, we tried but something happened at San JosC State and we couldn't get it.

MM: But her chair, Maria Alaniz. She could help.

RCM: So we did the play, I cried, and it went for a whole month and I cried every day of course because it was our family on stage, really our family on stage. Well this girl that was playing me, she was from Sacramento, she had a dress with a long slit showing her leg and I saw the director. "When you go to San JosC, no showing any leg. My dad will kill me 3 times, not only once!" Oh, the girl was laughing so we came to San Jose and she came back with a long skirt. I said, "You better." His name was Richard. "You better Richard, because that is not me, showing all that leg. My dad would kill me 3 times." And they all laughed.

MM: One last thing I realized when looking through this is there was an incident that I read about and maybe you have others, where you and Ctsar were kind of enforcing the rules with CSO because you were on the executive committee, such as when the African Americans wanted to eat at the Mexican restaurant and the owner was a CSO member, do you remember that? And you approached the owner, you and Char.. . Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-R.C. M. Interview

RCM: I don't remember me but I know Cesar did and maybe another board member, I don't know, we did one restaurant and I was involved in that one.

MM: It was with Ernie Abeytia.

RCM: Abeytia. I remember the other one, it was restaurant but at the same time a dance hall, what do you call it, a club, a night club. That one I remember.

MM: What was that?

RCM: Well they discriminated against blacks.

MM: Do you remember the name of the club?

RCM: Because our lawyer was black, the one for the CSO and we had a lot of black members too.

MM: Yeah, you worked with the NAACP?

RCM: No, we didn't work with them but they would help us. Or if they needed, we would go speak or something like that but I didn't actually go work with them. But I remember that.

MM: Do you remember the name of the nightclub?

RCM: I don't remember the name but the owner was named, his last name was De Leon, I can't remember his first name.

MM: Oh Felix.

RCM: Yeah, Felix De Leon. That one I do remember. It was a club.

MM: It was a club.

RCM: I think it was our lawyer that was discriminated against or something like that, it was someone that was involved with us and we took him to court and everything, I was a witness, oh my God!

MM: Well they were parnphleting against you at the markets and.. .

RCM: Oh yeah, he went, we were doing voter registration and he came by and said, "Oh you are a nigger lover." I just looked at him and I didn't say nothing back.

MM: Oh so it wasn't a pamphlet? It was just him saying that? Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-R C.M. Interview

RCM: Well, he did some pamphlets talking about us and about the CSO and all that stuff but he did personally went by me and say, "Oh you're a nigger lover." Because you know we defended, one of our lawyers was black, Mr. Sweet was his name. So they thought we were nigger lovers and all that stuff but they did discriminate really . . .bad but we did go to court and he lost because you know, discrimination, that's bad in any nationality.

MM: Did you lose members over that?

RCM: No, we didn't lose any members at all. In fact I think he lost the business. Some people didn't go and started getting away from him. Eventually he closed the club. I don't know for sure but they say he opened it in another section, Santa Clara or something. I never followed that.

MM: Were there other instances of racism like that or indications of, like, because Cesar was saying that the CSO was so middle class oriented.

RCM: We fought a lot to have all of the applications everywhere and everywhere, applications we put them to have in the Spanish language. Now you have them in many languages. But we were the first ones that did, we fought with Governor Brown, Edmund Brown, the first Governor Brown, to give pensions to the non-citizens because before if you weren't a citizen you couldn't get your old age pension. You had to be an American citizen, if not, forget it. We fought and we won. We used to knock the door down for Governor Brown and we would get committees and trucks and caravans and letters and postcards. So now you don't have to be an American citizen to get your pension, but you used to not get it if you weren't an American citizen. Hundreds of people were here and they needed. I was also involved in the citizenship program, people that wanted to become American citizens. The first American citizen program we had 90 people that became American citizens, they had been here for years and they never even tried to do nothing. So they went to school, the school is named after CCsar now but it used to be the Mayfair School, it's over there on the eastside. We had a mariachi, food, flags and they were all excited because some were already 60, 70 years old and they were all excited, they became citizens.

MM: You were overseeing that? Or was that Cesar and you?

RCM: Yes, well the whole organization but I was in charge of a particular committee and also the school would go 3 times a week to learn English, I was in charge of that too. Immigration wasn"t like it is now or I wouldn't be able to make it now. In those days when they caught one person with no paper, they would call me and I would started working on their case and that was it. But oh now, forget it, I wouldn't be able to get it not. In those days we didn't have that many ...illegal people, people without papers here. They always got their green cards and became American citizens too. I tell you, he got me involved in everything, he would say, "You can do it, you can do it.'' And my house was the office also until we got an office.

MM: Oh, for the CSO. And where was your house located? Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-R. C.1C.I. Interview

RCM: On Grant St., off of N. lS'here in San Jose, South lSt,I should say. It was a little house too but it was there and there was my office for my notary public and I did income tax. He got me another certificate. He said, "Come on, let's go." I said, "Oh no." "Just go to school." So I went to school for a week or two weeks to learn more about it. I did income tax for all the members.

MM: So for not having gone to school you had all these certifications.

RCM: I learned on my own because you know, if you want to learn you learn. And CCsar was always pushing me. "You can do it, you can do it." "No Cesar." "Yes, you can do it, you can do it." "If they come back and put the IRS on my tail, and I go to prison." "Oh, no, no. You are not going to do nothing that is wrong." I never did thank God, in all that time. Still a lot of people used to come. I said, "No I don't want to do it anymore." I only did my own. I don't do it anymore because I don't work.

MM: Was Cesar involved at all with the building of the new church? Did he come to it?

RCM: I don't think so. No. I know that the first mass they did was my daughter's Quincefiera. That was the first mass.

MM: And you think this was built in the '70s or '80s.

RCM: No, not that far. She was 15. She was born in 1952. I have to figure that out.

MM: That was 1967. Ok, because I have it built as 1966.

RCM: Probably yes, probably '66.

MM: In terms of the CSO, it was just the voter registration that happened there, there were no citizenship classes? At Father McDomell Hall?

RCM: Oh no, we didn't have any because they didn't have any room for us to have a lot of stuff. It was little, little. They did not have a lot of room to do anything.

MM: No CSO board meeting there.. .

RCM: No. I don't remember having a board meeting. I know everything was at the Mayfair School, which is now Cesar Chavez School. We had all of our board meetings there and functions that we did all the time.

MM: Were a lot of the people that went to the Mayfair School attenders at Guadalupe Church?

RCM: Yes. They were from the neighborhood.

MM: It is still part of Sal Si Puedes. Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-R.C.M. Interview

RCM: Yes. They came from as far as Mountain View and Sunnyvale. It was a school for the citizenship classes, because we went all over Santa Clara County. So it was the CSO for all of Santa Clara County. Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Oral History Project 2011 Release Form

1, -g.?h &~tZ l?li , am a participant in the Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Oral History Project. I understand that the purpose of this project is to collect audio- and video-taped oral histories of the people identified by Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation who have a relationship to Fr. McDonnell Hall and Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, both in San Jose, California.

Interviewees will also be asked to share related documentary materials (such as photographs and manuscripts) that may be deposited in the permanent collections of Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation's County Archives, as well as a copy for public access in the California Room of the Martin Luther IOng Jr. Library in San Jose, California. These interviews and documentary materials will assist to document the historical significance of these two sites and may be used for scholarly and educational purposes.

I understand that the Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation plans to retain the product of my participation as part of its permanent collection and that the materials may be used for exhibition, publication, presentation on the World Wide Web and successor technologies. This information from these interviews may be also used for educational and research purposes in the analog and digital exhibition, publication, documentary, and research project, Before Silicon Vallg: A MMigranr Path to Mexican American Civil Rights Project, a project of San Jose State University and coordinated by Margo McBane PhD, under whom this project is being conducted for the Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department.

I hereby grant to the Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department ownership of the physical property and the right to use the property that is the product of my participation, including my interview, performance, photographs, and written materials, as stated above. By giving permission, I understand that I do not give up any copyright or performance rights that I may hold.

I also grant to Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department my absolute and irrevocable consent for any photograph(s) provided by me or taken of me in the course of my participation in the project to be used, published, and copied by Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department and its assignees in any medium.

I agree that Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department may use my video or photographic image or likeness, statements, performance, and voice reproduction, or other sound effects without further approval on my part.

I release Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department, and its assignees and designees, from any and all claims and demands arising out of or in connection with the use of such recordings, documents, and artifacts, including but not limited to, any claims for defamation, invasion of privacy, or right of publicity.

ACCEPTED AND AGREED Interviewee Signature )C @c/;P--, hd+L Date ?/gal.// PrintedName & QUed.6z- kV/?d/',v~ Address /Si Pt-'~b/r- 9 h-lj 4'5 / Cityf)zo.g Bad #;// state C,+- ZIP 4~037 Telephone( YrP )-776.D9.70- Interviewer Signatures: -2% W"X-YM+&& ~ate~7k-2~~ CESAR CHAVEZ HISTORY QUESTIONS ABOUT 2 SITES: GUADALUPE CHURCH AND FR. MCDONNELL HALL ESTABLISH SIGNIFICANCE AND INTEGRITY OF THE PROPERTIES SANTA CLARA VALLEY COUNTY PARKS PROJECT 8/21/2011

RITA CHAVEZ MEDINA 81221201 1 Morgan Hill

1 .Family background: (Only ask questions that relate to migrancy to San Jose) a. What is your fill name? b. When and where were you born? What were the full names of your parents? c. Which generation of your family immigrated to the US from Mexico? When? What were their names? d. Where did you grow up until the mid 1930s? (Describe your grandparents7 farm and how they acquired it). e. When was your brother Cesar born and what was his full name? f. When and why did your family initially move to San Jose, California? What kind of work was your family doing in San Jose (mother worked at cannery) at the time? Did you and your siblings work as well? Where? Describe the work. Was it permanent or temporary work? (Why did your family leave the farm in Arizona in the 1930s? Where did your family migrate to? How old were you and Cesar at the time? What impact did this migrancy have on your life and your brother's life? How did it shape your views of the world?) g. Your brother, his wife and kids and other relatives moved to Crescent City, Ca to work in the lumber industry before he moved back to San Jose in 1952. Why did he move back to San Jose? Why did he leave Crescent City? Where did he move back to San Jose and what type of work did he find to support his family? h. Could you describe Sal Si Puedes. What were the streets like, the housing, sidewalks, lights, school district? Was there a church in Sal Si Puedes when you first moved there?

2. Guadalupe Church and Fr. McDonnell Hall a. Where did you go to church when your family was living in Sal Si Puedes before Guadalupe Church was built? Was the congregation mostly Mexican or Anglo? How far did you have to travel to get there? b. Originally how did Fr. McDonnell establish Guadalupe Church? Where did the congregation 1'' meet? How did Guadalupe Church get built? What was the property before Fr. McDonnell made it into a church? c. Fr. McDonnel17searly congregation first met in a Puerto Rican Hall. Where was that? It is still standing? Where is the original Guadalupe Church. Initially, when Fr. McDonnell oversaw the congregation Guadalupe Church was a mission, it did not become a full fledged church until it was built in the 1960s. According to the Archdiocese of Santa Clara County the current church was built in the 1960s and actually Fr. McDomell had left the congregation by then. What events took place in what places? d. There was an older church built on the property before the current church was constructed in the 1960s. It that older church still standing? Where was it located? When was Guadalupe Church 1'' built? Did the congregation participate in the building of the church? e. When was Fr. McDonnell Hall built (I can find no records of it in the county Archdiocese Archives)? f. What was the relationship between Guadalupe Church and other Catholic churches in the Santa Clara area? St. Patrick's Church? Sacred Heart Church? Five Wounds Church? g. How did Cesar meet Fr. McDonnell? Some histories say that Fr. McDonnell went door to door getting people from Sal Si Puedes to help built a church because none existed. Cesar was one of those that responded to Fr. McDonnell's appeal. Garcia and Griswold Del Castillo say that Cesar met Dr. McDonnell because he regularly attended church in Sal Si Puedes? h. When and in what church did Helen and Cesar marry? i. In the documents I read at the Archdiocese of Santa Clara, Fr. Donald McDonnell came from St. Patrick's Church in San Jose to Sal Si Puedes in 1952 to find out about establishing a church there. Then I read in Garcia and Griswold Del Castillo that McDonnell and McCullough were sent by the Archdiocese of SF to go to the San Joaquin Valley to work with farrnworkers. What do you know about this? j. What were your impressions of Fr. McDonnell? k. What influence did Fr. McDonnell have on Cesar Chavez? How did Fr. McDonnell mentor or educate Chavez in the methods of community organizing? 1. What was your role in the creation of the church? How long have you been or were you a member of Guadalupe Church? How long was Cesar? m. Were the members of the congregation supportive of the social justice issues that Fr. McDonnell and Cesar Chavez undertook during their partnership? How many of these activities took place on the property? How did the activist community use the church property? What other social justice causes related to Cesar Chavez took place on the property?

3. Rise of the CSO and use of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church and Fr. McDonnell Hall by Cesar Chavez a. Describe the meeting of Fred Ross and Cesar Chavez. I have read several different versions: where Cesar hid and Ross had to come back several times, or where Cesar went to Richard's across street and Helen pointed him out. b. Alinsky method: make change one person at a time. Fred Ross technique: the house meeting. c. How did Fred Ross and Cesar use Guadalupe Church and the nearby hall? Were these meeting places? Social places? What did the CSO use them for? d. What role did Cesar play in the development of the CSO locally? When and how long was he director of the SJ Chapter of the CSO? What were his experiences in San Jose as director of the CSO? What was Rita's role with the CSO in San Jose? (discuss Cesar and Rita's confrontation with CSO and Afi-ican Americans-SJ chapter had 50 AA through NAACP led by UCB student Webster Sweet. Mexican restaurant owner and CSO board member denied them service. You and Cesar and another CSO Board member, Ernie Abeytia, called a meeting to discipline Felix Leon for not permitting African Americans to eat in restaurant. 7 of the Executive board resigned and 70% of CSO chapter resigned. The following Sunday, the former CSO leaders put out leaflets in Mexican Churches and supermarkets in English and Spanish saying "Rita Chavez and the CSO are a bunch of niggerlovers". The San Jose CSO Chap was reduced from 800 to 100. Chavez noted the poor Mexicans supported the CSO constitution and black equality, it was the middle class Mexican that left. e. Why did he leave the CSO to form the UFWA?

4. Formation of the UFWA and use of Fr. McDonnell Hall and Our Lady of Guadalupe Church by Cesar Chavez a. How did Cesar Chavez use Guadalupe Church and Fr. McDonnell Hall after the formation of the UFWA? b. Why was the Boycott Headquarters located at Sacred Heart Church and not Guadalupe Church? c. What was Rita's role with the formation and creation of the UFW? d. When did Fr. McDonnell leave the site? The Diosys records said a new priest took over in the 1960s where the new church was built.

5. Do you have anything to add as to why these two sites, Guadalupe Church and Fr. McDonnell Hall are significant to Cesar Chavez and his work with the UFWA?

6. Do you have suggestions of questions we should ask a. your son Rudy Medina? b. Rev. Sal Alvarez? c. Fr. Boyle? Fr. McDonnell Hall and Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, CBsar Chhvez Oral History Site Project

A Project of Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation

Conducted by Guerra & McBane, LLC 8/28/20 11

DVD: Mr. Rudolph Medina, Rev. Deacon Salvador Alvarez, Mr. Albert Muiioz Interview (and comment by Rev Javier Reyes, OFM) DVD 8/28/2011

b Play Interview Movie

b Read Interview Transcript (Print Transcript Through Root Menu)

CD: Mr. Rudolph Medina, Rev. Deacon Salvador Alvarez, Mr. Albert Muiioz Church Scrapbook Photos CD 8/28/20 1 1 b Photo Gallery (Print Single Photos Through Root Menu) Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sires Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-Group Interview

SANTA CLARA COUNTY PARKS & RECREATION CESAR CHAVEZ SITES ORAL HISTORY PROJECT Contracted by Guerra & McBane LLC

Interviewees: Rudolph Chavez Medina (RCM) Rev. Deacon Salvador Alvarez (SA) Albert Muiioz (AM) Interviewers: Margo McBane, Ph.D., Armando Catalan (AC), Liliana Francisco (LF) Interview Date: August 27,2011 Interview Location: McDonnell Hall (group interview outside of hall), Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, San JosC, California Videographer: Andrea Garcia and Ema Yamamoto Video Editor: Andrea Garcia Transcribers: lS'DVD: Yolanda Ortiz Audio-Editor: Margo McBane, Ph.D. Final DVD Producer: Keith Sanders Interview Length: 1" DVD: Transcription Length: lS'DVD: 13 pages

Interview Summary Sheet: Fr. McDonnell was one of four priests from the Archdiocese of San Francisco, that formed the Spanish Mission Band, dedicating their lives to working with Spanish-speaking people, primarily farm workers, in the San Joaquin Valley and San Francisco Bay Area. Fr. McDonnell chose to work in eastside San Jose and established Guadalupe Church Mission in the barrio area known as Sal Si ~uedes(Leave If You Can). Initially Fr. McDonnell met in garages in the area, then they met in an Old Puerto Rican Hall. Fr. McDonnell decided to buy another church and move it to the current property. Initially Guadalupe Church was St. Martin's Church in the Burbank area of San Jose. Fr. McDonnell asked CCsar Chhvez and several other parishioners to saw the building in half, by hand, and move it to the site that is the property of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. Initially this cut building was put back together and called Guadalupe Church. CCsar, his wife Helen, his brother Richard and his sister Rita were all part of the first mass that was held at the new church that was built in the 1950s. When Fr. McDonnell saw the leadership that CCsar took in building the new church, he decided to mentor Cesar on the teachings of Gandhi's use of non- violent social change and the new movement of liberation theology within the Catholic Church. Fred Ross, trained by Sal Alinsky at the Industrial Areas Foundation in Chicago, first went to Los Angeles to set up The Community Service Organization to work with Mexican Americans in . Fred Ross arrived in San Jose in 1952, anci went to Fr. McDonnell to ask about what Mexican American leaders might be interested in working with him in establishing a voter registration drive and a northern California chapter of the CSO. Fr. McDonnell suggested CCsar. Cesar, his brothers and sister worked with the CSO in San Jose and endured attacks on their reputations because of their support of Mexican and African American Civil Rights. CCsar, while working with the CSO, went first to organize at Decoto [the Hayward barrio] and then to Oxnard. Then he began the United Farm Workers of America. Throughout this organizing, Guadalupe Church served as a touchstone for his work. It was at Guadalupe Church that he first Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & iMcBane, LLC-Group Interview learned leadership and social justice skills. It was through Guadalupe Church that he met Fred Ross. It was through Guadalupe Church that he conducted his community organizing with the CSO. Even when he left the area, he always came back to Guadalupe Church for spiritual renewal and support for the UFWA cause. In particular he made a spiritual vow to dedicate his life to working with farm laborers, by undertaking a religious crusade, or Cursillo. Guadalupe Church was not only the location of his social justice work and religious commitment, but it also embodied the spiritual devotion he made to his work. He came to social justice through Catholic theology, not, as his critics often stated, through Communist ideology. In fact, the Catholic Church provided the major foundational support for his work with farm laborers. He also incorporated Mexican American Catholic symbolism, such as Our Lady of Guadalupe, in both of his undertakings, the CSO and the UFWA. Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-Group Interview

SANTA CLARA COUNTY PARKS & RECREATION CESAR CHAVEZ SITES ORAL HISTORY PROJECT Contracted by Guerra & McBane LLC

Interviewees: Rudolph Chavez Medina (RCM) Rev. Deacon Salvador Alvarez (SA) Albert Muiioz (AM) Interviewers: Margo McBane, Ph.D., Armando Catalan (AC), Liliana Francisco (LF) Interview Date: August 27,2011 Interview Location: McDonnell Hall (group interview outside of hall), Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, San JosC, California Videographer: Andrea Garcia and Ema Yamamoto Video Editor: Andrea Garcia Transcribers: 1" DVD: Yolanda Ortiz Audio-Editor: Margo McBane, Ph.D. Final DVD Producer: Keith Sanders Interview Length: 1 DVD : Transcription Length: lS'DVD: 13 pages

lSTDVD: McDONNELL HALL WALKING TOUR TRANSCRIPT MM: So why don't we talk about the buildings first. Where did this building come from, Father McDonnell Hall?

SA: This building was transferred out from the Burbank area of San Jose, which was Saint Martin's Church, with the original site over there. While a number of sources, two or three sources that I've seen written about the movement, uh, most, most, most the most specific is The Fight in the Fields that talks about the Sal Si Puedes area, Cesar describes the Puerto Rican Hall it was an old shanty place where they held mass here. So Father McDonnell, who was part of the [Spanish] Mission Band, was offered the building at Saint Martin's and the history of the parish booklet, the history describes that, you'll be getting that. So Richard Chivez has told a number times the story that CCsar and him and six or seven other guys where asked by Father McDonnell to uh to go and saw the building in half and it was brought over, uh Cesar having gone to the first mass. The Father had here at the Puerto Rican Hall, he said "We need a perish." So they responded to that. They brought the building over and Richard and CCsar describe how they sawed with a hand saw, they didn't have no there was no electrical saws, and how arduous that was. So for a while they would be sawing and sawing and then they would rest and then somebody else would take over until they sawed the building in half. The parish actually that was there and then brought it over put it back together. And Cksar and the Helen where part of it and Richard and Rita were all part of the first mass that was held here.

MM: When it was brought from Burbank, where was it located? You said that it was on the other side of the property, was it over here? Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-Group Interview

SA: It was brought over to... .

AM: It was right along Silver Creek at the Karnrnerer Ave. It was about this same distance maybe a little bit shorter distance from Silver Creek, which is that creek there, and uh it was a lot uh uh, just about the same distance from the road that the existing church is know.

MM: And did they have mass over there? They, they put it together and, and had mass over there?

SA: It was made into Guadalupe Church.

MM: Ok

SA: So, as I was indicating before, Luis Valdez had come in from Delano. I, my, our family, moved in 1940 uh from Santa Maria here and so we lived out on White Road. And so we used to come to the services here, the mass, during those high school years. I particularly remember that Good Friday services that Father McDonnell had get on a jeep and ride in a jeep. What struck me the most at that time about coming to McDonnell Hall with my grandmother and other members of the family, is that on Good Friday he would get a telephone pole and make, and you'll see pictures of the of the cross that was made, and it took maybe eighteen to twenty five guys to carry this huge cross. And it always left a memory in my mind that, the, that the community had to carry the cross. It was, it was a symbol that Father McDo~ellput in there, and, and of course we were saying the rosary. And so there are at least six sources that I've identified that describe Father McDonnell's role here in relation to, to working directly with Cesar and fighting the fight for, for the fields. CCsar say's, "My education started here." And he describes that. And so I have copies of, of a number of citations out of six books that I've looked at, that refer to Cesar's relationship with Father McDonnell and the, the church here. Rita, I think, has indicated and others of the family indicated, that it was the organizing, it started here with the CSO [Community Service Organization], with, with Father McDonnell, and that whole conversation about how he was identified by a Mexican American nurse as well as Father McDonnell. There's that whole story about that meeting that, that Rudy has been part of a play of that, that's depicted that scene. So for, for those of us that have come out of that time, we contracted in the fields here, we remember the McDonnell Hall. There was nothing but orchards all over East San Jose. The only church we could go to is Five Wounds, and Cesar refers to that in his book that we did not have a church for the Mexican American farm worker community. So the three of us, my brother Edward and Raul and myself we would contract similar to what Cesar would do with Richard, go in the contract fields. So that was that was in those days that was it. So we would gather here at, and my age I was, I was still a in the teen age years, with Luis Valdez, who him and I went through high school at James Lick in 1954, '55, '56, '57, '58. So and then we went to San Jose State pniversity]. And so we came out of the fields, Luis and I came out of the fields, as did a number of others, having had that experience of helping our families with the summer farm work that we did, but we we're always connected here to this particular church, Guadalupe Church, which is know as McDonnell Hall. Santa Clara County Park & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-Group Interview

MM: So just to go back a minute, so it was located over on this side, and by Silver Creek.

SA :

MM: And then when did it get moved to this location? And did it have to be cut in half again to get moved?

AM: No. It was moved with uh with uh; just like a house is moved on rollers and I can't tell you what year it was I don't remember.

MM:

AM: I am not sure what year it was, but it was well after the church was built

MM: Oh, it was after the church..?

AM: Because after the, after the church was built, we continued to use McDonnell Hall, then it became McDonnell Hall, we continued to use it for Catechism. We used to teach Catechism there and at the school both. Then, after a while, Father Anthony Soto was still here and we decided to move it here

RCM: So I think it's real important to emphasize that even though today it's McDonnell Hall it was always Guadalupe Church and even when it came from Saint Martin's, it was Saint Martin's Church. So the building has always been, until it was transformed into a hall, always been the church. So when we talk about the significance of the site, it's the site of the of Guadalupe Church, now as McDonnell Hall, that building and its significance to Cesar and the farm worker movement, so the significance came from it. It started at dividing that building, bringing it over creating a new Guadalupe Church, and then after that the now existing Guadalupe Church was built then it was moved over but in relationship to, to the things that took place at Guadalupe and in regards to Father McDonnell, he was instrumental in starting Cesar in his organizing efforts and those organizing efforts began with Community Service Organization. There is a story that, that as Sal said, we have a play that, that we've performed called, "Let The Eagle Fly." It talks about when Fred Ross tried to come see Cesar several times and he kept telling his wife Helen, " Oh, I don't want to talk to him, he's just, you know, some Gringo that's trying to you know, find out how we can still eat beans and tortillas and have lots of kids." But once Fred started talking to CCsar, Richard and, and their cousin Manuel about the empowerment of the people, because originally, what they were going to do was they were gonna jump him and Cesar had this signal of lighting a cigarette. He said, "Once I lit the cigarette, then we'll jump him, we won't beat him up too bad, but we'll just scare the hell out of him." But [Cesar] never lit the cigarette because Fred caught his attention and from that moment on Char started to help the Community Service Organization and that all happened here and it happened because of Cesar's community involvement already with the Guadalupe Church and not just Cesar but every other family member of the Chavez family because the homestead is not very far from here, it's less then a mile Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-Group Interview

away or half a mile away and, and so this was always the central location you know, as Sal has said before in other conversations, "Here is where during the grape strikes we used to gather and do car caravans and take clothing and food to the striking Filipino farm workers and the United Farm Workers then the National Farm Workers Association." So this was the hub in San Jose, besides my mom's house and Sal's house and several other people's houses where they dropped of those goods for those striking farm workers.

MM: I wanted, before we jump back, 'cause I want to ask more questions about Father McDonnell. But there also was Sacred Heart was a place that the boycott was like, workers in the boycott, where located over there. And I wondered, if this was the hub why, and you had mentioned why, but I just want get it on film, why was Sacred Heart like the residential hub [for the UFWA boycott]?

SA : Um..

MM: For the boycott?

S A: Father Moriarty, his, when he was there in the '60s the, the, the Sacred Heart Church area was significant because it was part of the Diocese of San Francisco, Archdiocese of San Francisco. You have to remember that, here this was a mission church when it first got established as Guadalupe Church, it was a mission church. It did not have the standing that that downtown Sacred Heart Church had had within the, within the, the Archdiocese. So key Irish pastors were placed at Sacred Heart Church, and Father Moriarty has his place in history in terns of, of doing that. So that was the second church that was connected to the farm worker movement. This particular sight here was in the fields literally, literally in the fields. Sacred Heart Church was in downtown, the inner city part of, of San JosC and it has it has its historical significance because.. .once the strike happened then Guadalupe Church and Sacred Heart Church became two central locations but remember, in 1966, this was still very much a rural area, very, this was the base of the farm worker community of Santa Clara County.

Mm: What was Sal Si Puedes like before there was Sacred Heart Mission, I mean not Sacred Heart.. .

RCM: Guadalupe

MM: Yes, Guadalupe Mission here?

SA: Did you see the picture in, The Fight for Our Lives, of the, of the, no The Fight in the Fields. It has a great picture of the conditions.. .

MM: Could you describe them though?

SA: Well, there were no sidewalks, there was no pavement in the streets. In, in the, in the winter time if, if you came into this area you got stuck in the mud! Literally. So it was a Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-Group Intervim

colonia and that's saying a banio, the Sal Si Puedes area, some would say, well, "Yeah, I'm going to Sal Si Puedes," because your gonna get stuck in the mud! That was one of the interpretations of Sal Si Puedes and there have been many others. But it was a very poor neighborhood that Fred Ross describes. In one of the citations that are there that I'm going to give you and that Cesar describes in one of the citations I am going to give you, CCsar describes, and other people describe, as you know, a poor community that the farm worker families were part of.

MM: So when you were mentioning a Mission Band, one of the two of you, that Father McDonnell, "was a part of a Mission Band", What is that?

SA: The Archdiocese of San Francisco, Archbishop McDouglas established a [Spanish] Mission Band of, of four, four priests: Father McCullough [San Joaquin County], Father McDonnell [Santa Clara County], Fr [Ronald] Burke [Alameda County], and there was one other [Fr Garcia-Contra Costa County, previously Fr Duggan had been part of the Band and Burke replaced him]. . .there was four of them that were spread over northern California to work in the rural areas, and that's, so Father McDonnell decided he wanted to come here. [The purpose of the Band was to work with Spanish-speaking people.]'

MM: And what was their mandate?

SA: Their mandate was to, to, to, to do ministry in the rural areas so one was sent to Stockton, hat's Father McCullough was in Stockton. There's lots of descriptions of what he did. Father McDonnell and Father McCullough were cited in three citations that I've seen as having been involved in the formation of the first AFL-CIO labor union (AWA) the Agricultural Workers Association that was founded in, in Stockton, and it cites both their citations saying that both Father McDonnell and Father McCullough were key instruments. They went back to talk to George Meany [president, AFL-CIO] and Walter Ruther [president of UAW] to get funds for that particular union. But prior to that what's described about Father McDonnell which, which is really distinct, is his teachings, as CCsar says, "My education started with Father McDonnell." Father McDonnell exposed him to Saint Francis de Assisi to the Social Encyclicals, the social teachings of the church and the rights of workers to have a union. And so, before Fred Ross arrived, CCsar, already, his social consciousness was there. He started reading about Gandhi, and so when what Rudy describes as, that meeting of "Pachu~os~~that were described in the sources, right, and the dropping of the cigarette, CCsar7sconsciousness already had been had already been formed, I think, or, or very much influenced by going out being the driver for Father McDonnell to the labor camps with the Braceros, were here in, in, in the county, and so he loved, he started reading. And as I, the twelve years I spent working in the Union later on, I always knew him to have five books, reading five books at a time. He was a prolific writer; I mean reader, I should say. So his reading days, while he was a slow at first as driver, he was a slow reader, he could pick, he could, you know, really go through, but it's, the social, the teachings of the Social Encyclicals, and when Vatican Two came, Pope John XXIII, by the time that came, CCsar was already ahead, and the people here were already because they already had social consciousness the lay people,

I John Duggan A utobiography Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Gzterra & McBane, LLC-Group lnrerview

not priests or nuns, but no, not the clergy not the hierarchy but the people with the church, so Father McDonnell, I think, was one of those among other priests who really taught that to Char, the power of being a Catholic lay person and organizing, with the backing of the church. Like at our last meeting, didn't we say that Mark Grossman, in Delano, recently said that when Fred Ross came to San JosC and met Cesar, Fred Ross had that experience in Orange County with the school segregation and all, that's before he even started the first CSO. Fred Ross once was called a Communist and so Fred learned that if you came and sought people identified that were tied to the church, and he came here to do a voter registration drive and it describes that he went house to house with saying the Rosary. Richard Chavez says they were actually saying the Rosary, that's how he organized. And so what, what Mark Grossman emphasized in how he depicts what happened here is that it was important for Fred Ross to identify somebody tied to the church, so that whoever the organizers that came out to do the CSO had a tie to the church so they wouldn't be called Communists. This was true of Dolores Huerta. Dolores Huerta, after the death of Richard Chavez , I flew to Los Angeles, on the way to Stockton for another family funeral, she was telling me about how she organized out of Saint Mary's all the CSO meetings were held at Saint Mary's Church, in Stockton. So if you go to Oxnard where CCsar, after he left here, in Oxnard it was the same thing. You go to Delano, the Guadalupe Church is important. You go to Coachella, you go, you know he fasted at one of the church halls in Santa Rita in, in Phoenix, you remember. So it all started here though, because of the connection that CCsar had with Father McDonnell and how Father McDonnell, I mean, if you can imagine for somebody from a farm worker community to be to be riding around or driving around with a priest and being taught by a priest and then being asked by a priest, "Hey go saw a building in half and bring it over here and we are going to celebrate!" I mean, for us to have a relationship with a priest, I mean, yeah from here to the alter, but it was very, very unusual that.. . and the relationships then that relationship between CCsar and Father McDonnell, he told him that whatever he did in terms of organizing he knew that the, the poorer churches, the one in Delano and Oxnard and all the others, that, that, that, he could count on support from the Mexican American farm workers and those local churches while the hierarchy was keeping their hands off. So that, those are, and the fact that he was a Cursista, and I don't know if you have that part of the history but CCsar in '62, because of the formation he had here, he actually did a Cursillo and so the, the, the theme song is what? "De Colores." "De Colores" comes out of the Cursillo movement and so here at Guadalupe Church when the Cursillo movement opened up boy.. .

MM: What was the Cursillo Movement?

AM: Well the Cursillo movement is a movement of lay people who go away on a retreat for a very intense retreat. I'm a Cursista too, and it changes you. It changes you in terms of the way you think toward your fellow man. It's so intense. And Guadalupe was the center for many years. This was where they, came, left and this is where they came almost all the parishes in the valley. So it was very, very intense and it changed people.

MM: And what years are you talking about Albert? Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-Group Interview

AM: Well I went on my Cursillo in about 1974, 1974 that's when I went on mine. There is still a Cursillo movement it's not quite as strong as it was before.

MM: When did it begin?

AM: Well I couldn't tell you when it began

MM: When did it come here?

SA : The late '50s early '60s.. .

MM: Ok, thank you.

SA: When it came from Spain,

MM: Ok it came here?

SA: Now there is a historical document that is out there that Andrea Flores has, that Father Flores had. Father Flores, Father Renaldo Flores who was a Franciscan priest here who worked with Father McDonnell before that church was built. Father Flores, you'll see pictures when we go in there of Renaldo Flores. He was the rector for the Cursillo that CCsar attended in 1962. And Andrea Flores has the picture, this is a very, very historical, historical picture of CCsar being part of that Cursillo and with the picture of Father Renaldo Flores. And what is significant is that the Deacons here, one of Deacons here Phil Marcus, attended that Cursillo with Cesar and remarked later on that at the end of that Cursillo this was in 1962, that CCsar openly prayed that he was going to dedicate the rest of his life to organizing farm workers. At the foot of the cross people heard him say that and with some real surety. And I think Richard Chavez, in the long conversations I had with him, he noticed a big difference in Char following the Cursillo. And so when the strike came, the Cursillo people who had attended Cursillos, they didn't care if the bishops weren't supporting or any thing like that, they would say, he is a Cursista, he's not a Communist, let's go support Char and that, that was significant

AM: And I think it's important to note that the people took to this and it changed lives, I know it changed my life and usually it was a family thing. For instance the man would go first then the wife would go second, that's what happened to me and my wife, I went first she went second. And then with the idea that you come back and recommit yourself to the parish. We were all committed anyway but we had another understanding, another understanding of what we were doing and why we were doing it.

MM: And could you explain what that understanding was?

AM: Well, what a true commitment is from God, what a true commitment is, how you do it through God. How you commit yourself to the community and to helping and, and it was, as Sal was stating many, many times, well, the Cursillo movement was approved by the priest but in the organizing it wasn't. If I just, in fact, go back just a little bit, and say Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-Group Interview

that the describing the, the original organizing of farm workers, and well it went far beyond the farm workers. For instance I, because of that organizing, because of Fred Ross, and because of the organizers that I knew from the Industrial Areas Foundation, from the IAF where I was trained there as an organizer. It was it was a recommitment and it was difficult in the beginning to get people to follow. We were organizing the community but in the end, in the end, it was organized, and today thirty some years later it's a thriving organization and I think it's significant that it all, I guess we can say it started with CCsar because of his commitment because he was part of our community, because he was Mexican American. I think it's important to note also that all of us who were in this movement were mostly Mexican American. We were all born here and we were without in a lot of ways but the influence that he had, if that's what you want to call it, was tremendous, not only in the farm workers, it wasn't that narrow, it was community wide and other movements also started.

MM: So, it influenced the whole Civil Rights Movement.

SA: Well I think it solidified. If I could continue, the Cursillo for CCsar, as he knew I was a Cursista too, and I made mine when I was twenty one years of age at San Jose State [University]. By the time I, I started working with Cesar, he already, he knew that I was a Cursista and, and what did it really mean? And Dolores says it and many others say, it's doing God's work. It's connecting the faith to doing God's work as helping organize people into a union. That's God's work. That's what brought the whole thing together between what Father McDonnell was teaching about the Social Encyclicals say that the Catholic Church supports organizing people into a union and then the Cursillo, "Ok my faith tells me that now I can dedicate the rest of my life to doing that." So that I think, that I think, was a milestone, let's put it that way. If you look at the milestone of Cesar's meeting Father here and then getting them working together to bring a church and establish a church in this community that didn't have a church. That's a milestone. And then the next milestone, he meets Fred Ross, right? That's a milestone. And then Fred Ross teaches him, "Ok let's go to Decoto [near Hayward] and then we're going to Oxnard." And Cesar moves out of that phase. So when Richard Chavez said, "It all started here," when Rudy, it started with Cesar and Rita. I wanted to comment that, one of the things that happened in the early days went back to the Communist thing, is that one of the sources described, that I was reading last night, said that Cesar, after he started organizing in Oxnard, was called back to San Jose by Father McDonnell. And Father McDonnell says, "There is a leaflet out saying that Rita Chavez and the CSO are nigger lovers." And there is that quote that's there. There was something like ten thousand leaflets put out that are described in The Fight in the Fields, ten thousand leaflets. And so CCsar comes back and gets ten people to go out there and get all of those leaflets out of all the masses that were said in this valley. So, yeah, in organizing you got called names and, and CCsar got called a Communist many, many times. And Rita, you know, its shocking to hear how kta got labeled, and then Ernie Abeytia.. .that whole thing about the leaflets calling Ernie Abeytia's wife a whore. And so there was some ugly, what CCsar refers to as filthy, once the organizing started. And Cesar got trained in organizing and the voter registration drive that he did here, the four thousand that were done here in terms of the voters the initial voter registration drive for which Fred Ross came here to Santa Clara Counry Park & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-Group Interview

do, to identify someone to do, that it got it got rough and so yes, Rita Chavez is as hero, from, I mean she is somebody that knows what it was like in those early days, with racism and the red baiting was so bad. So it's great to hear that you're gonna be doing a history of her and of Lenny too. Lenny, Lenny's got many stories and he's just down the street here but he's also described as having been heavily involved in the organizing of the CSO based out of Guadalupe Church.

RCM: Let me just go back to a really important point that both Albert and Sal have made. Father McDonnell raised CCsar's social conscious level but it was well rooted by his mother. You know one of CCsar's values is service to others. He learned that as a young boy through his mother and father, and his grandmother and grandfather. So that was always a part of our family's character. And so the significance of this site and Father McDonnellYsinfluence as a mentor to CCsar is tremendously significant because not only did Father McDonnell teach Cesar and mentor him but then he gave him exposure to Fred Ross, who then took his social consciousness to an even higher level. And then when he went on the Crusade he even took it to the next hlghest level. So that's why, in CCsar's belief, his commitment was so deeply rooted through all these levels and when he made that commitment at the base of the cross that he was going to spend the rest of his life organizing farm workers, he actually fulfilled that because up until the day he passed away he was representing farm workers. And that all began with his family here, with this site, with the sawing of the building in half with rebuilding it, with having all the meetings here. This is the beginning you can't tell a story without a beginning and this is the beginning and to leave this portion out would be a half truth because everyone knows what happened in '65 and '68 but they forget what happened in '52 all the way to '61 and that's where, and that's why this interview and this portion of what we're doing today and for the next few days is so critical because that conscious level probably would have increased for CCsar but not without the push fiom..and actually, let me describe it like this Father McDonnell grabbed by the hand and pulled him up and raised his conscious level. Then he lifted him up to Fred Ross, who then grabbed him and lifted his conscious level and then the church as Sal and Albert were talking about then solidified the..

SA : The Cursillo

RCM: The Cursillo solidified his commitment to social justice organizing farm workers and yes, the focus was originally most of us were, all Mexican Americans, we are all Latinos right but it became a social movement because there were people from the farm worker movement that were from India, they were Jewish, they were African American, and the Filipinos, as we all know. And it just grew and grew. And he believed in women's rights. He believed in gay rights. He believed in all those things before there were actual movements. That's because higher social conscious and that's why when he fasted, he fasted to raise other people's social consciousness level by example, up to thirty six days with no water and that's amazing for a human being but he had that internal fortitude that he developed and that it was established at this site, that's the significance.

AM: Let me add one more tidbit Santa Clara Counfy Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-Group Interview

MM: Yeah

AM: In terms of commitment and we are all talking about, that, I think we all come out and say, "Wow what a commitment!" But that commitment spread out throughout the community and that's why it was so important that we have these types of leaders. We had these leaders that were really committed to this. And as the church started jumping on.. .When I was in Chicago, I called home, "I don't know what I'm doing here. The gentlemen seating next to me is Bishop Flores taking the same training I was in, yeah. He was Bishop, an Archbishop." And I said, "What am I doing here?" And [Bishop Flores] mentioned that about the Communist thing. He said, "Well they're calling me a Communist, all of us because we are here at the IAF training." He said. "But I'm not afraid." And that was a kind of leadership there in a class itself that helped commit yourself.

MM: Can you say what the IAF stands for?

AM: Industrial Areas Foundation

MM: And can you explain what that is?

AM: It's a , it's a school for training organizers, they teach you how to organize. It's the same training as Cksar took, that training but the organizers go there. It was the biggest in the United States at the time anyways.

MM: So the training Fred Ross had was from that?

AM: Yeah and that was, they had a school in Chicago and one I think in Boston, I went to the one in Chicago. There was about thirty of us there. It was filled nationally, it was in national news when we were there but it really, just like the Cursillo transforms you when you get out, so did the IAF training. All of us we were from all over the United States. You came out a lot more committed. It convinces you, it convinces you that you are on the right track and it was all done through the church

MM: And how did you use your training when you came back?

AM: Well I worked here in the community, organizing.

MM: Doing what kind of organizing?

AM: Well if you're not from here you haven't heard of PACT, tons of churches are involved in well ...

MM: What does it stand for PACT?

AM: People Acting in the Community Together. We started with two churches, Guadalupe and Sacred Heart. Father Robert Fister was the first one who gave us and I personally Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-Group Interview

interviewed every pastor in the area. I'd give them literature and sometimes the literature would get back to the parish but we never gave up and finally we got them all but you're more committed, you're more committed. And as you learn how to a study problems, how to approach how to.. ..there still doing it today

MM: One thing, just to, to go back a bit with Fred Ross and the CSO. How did the CSO use this Father McDonnell Hall when it was a Mission?

SA: Let's go back. It was Guadalupe Church Mission and the naming of it, Guadalupe Church was significant in this valley and the Archdioceses of San Francisco. There was no Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. And understanding what Rudy indicated the faith that we came out of it the Chavez family and the Alvarez family and all the other families is Our Lady, is the significance of our Lady of Guadalupe. This morning, early in the morning, I was reading how the farm workers were marching with Our Lady of Guadalupe again and they passed through Turlock going to Sacramento. But here Our Lady of Guadalupe and, and was something that the Mexican American farm workers community can say, "Ok this is ours. This is ours." You know I was raised with a dad who was a farm worker in the San Joaquin Valley. My mother tied carrots in Santa Maria and then we picked prunes and apricots here to help the family. But always, always, with Our Lady of Guadalupe. You know my dad always carried Our Lady of Guadalupe and every morning he would wake himself up and he would do the sign of the cross to Our Lady of Guadalupe. So with the CSO being connected to Our Lady of Guadalupe, right? That was.. .Fred Ross had something there in terms of organizing a CSO with parishioners at Our Lady of Guadalupe, there was that connection. And the UFW is the same thing. You know Our Lady of Guadalupe and the UFW are tied together. You can't separate the two, right? You just can't separate from the Mexican American community on this side of the border and the other side of the border, the struggle for justice, and you know that Our Lady of Guadalupe represents. That was an aspect that I wanted to make sure that that was part of the significance of this site. It may be called McDonnell Hall right know but we are fully intending to and the pastor hlly intends to have it restored as a chapel and a site here where there would be a chapel for Cksar Chavez and with a historical connection with CSO organizing and UFW organizing. Because you talk about Cesar you can't separate the church from the CSO or the UFW. You can't. You know you could say the Democratic Party, too, but we are not talking that political now. We are talking about what Rudy says the values that CSO represented to the Mexican American Community that joined the CSO, the church leadership or the priest, whether it was Father McCullough working with Dolores at Saint Elizabeth's Church in Stockton or Father McDonnell here or Father Day or Monsignor Gene Boyie. There was a whole array, array of clergy within the Catholic Church and of course the Protestant churches and then of course the Jewish community and the Quaker community. So out of here, out of that, the roots here grew ecumenical ties and those values of Chris Hartmire's Migrant Ministry, which started here with the Council of Churches.

MM: Oh I wanted to ask you about that.. .

SA: It started here.. .? Sunla Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-Group Interview

MM: Ok can you explain how that got started here at Guadalupe Church Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-Group Interview

SANTA CLARA COUNTY PARKS & RECREATION CESAR CHAVEZ SITES ORAL HISTORY PROJECT Contracted by Guerra & McBane LLC

Interviewees: Rudolph Chavez Medina (RCM) Rev. Deacon Salvador Alvarez (SA) Albert Munoz (AM) Comments by Fr. Javier Reyes (FR) Interviewers: Margo McBane, Ph.D., Armando Catalan (AC), Liliana Francisco (LF) Interview Date: August 27,2011 Intewiew Location: McDonnell Hall (group interview outside of hall) Videographer: Andrea Garcia and Ema Yamamoto Video Editor: Andrea Garcia Transcribers: 2ndDVD: Monica Gianera Audio-Editor: Margo McBane, Ph.D. Final DVD Producer: Keith Sanders Intewiew Length: 2ndDVD: 73 minutes Transcription Length: 2ndDVD: 14 pages

Interview Summary Sheet: Rudy Chavez Medina, CCsar's nephew, describes his relationship to Our Lady of Guadalupe Church and CCsar Chivez. The Church has been significant to CCsar and the MedinalChavez family. Rudy has lived in San Jose for his entire 57 years. His family lived in the barrio Sal Si Puedes, when Rudy was born. He mother and father helped his uncles CCsar and Richard build McDonnell Hall. The story of Cesar ChBvez and the formation of the UFWA all started at McDonnell Hall, then called Guadalupe Church and continued to the building of the new church in 1967. The Church is significant to his family because it was where many of his family members were either baptized, received first communion, confirmed, married, or had their memorial services. Guadalupe Church and McDonnell Hall were where CCsar started his first thoughts of organizing farm workers, before he formed the National Farm Workers Association. Guadalupe Church's first priest, Father McDonnell was central to CCsar's early community organizing education. During the formation of the CSO in the 1950s, CCsar would hold many meetings and voter registration drives at Father McDonnell Hall, then called Guadalupe Church. In order for people to get organized, their movement must include cultural activities. The same thing was true for both the CSO and the UFW. Guadalupe Church was the site of many masses, celebrations and fiestas. Guadalupe Church was built in the heart of the farm workers' community of San Jose, so it reflected their interests, their desires, and their dreams. It became a central location for UFW marches. Guadalupe Church was a community church but also a Catholic church, which was an integral part of the UFW, in which all marches had at the front, a banner of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the UFW flag, the California flag, and the US flag. Cesar mandated a farm workers union needed to include organizing as well as family, church, and culture. Guadalupe Church (first at Fr. McDonnell Hall) was the site that included Chavez's family, religion and culture. His Catholic faith gave him stability to survive the tough times during the development of the Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-Group Interview

UFWA and the violence. The times he fasted reflected his commitment to Catholicism. The site of the new Guadalupe Church was a mecca of activity for UFWA activities. UFW boycott campaigns were supported there and dignitaries, such as Bobby Kennedy, came to visit the church, particularly when Cesar's mother died. Even today the church continues to support and to assist the United Farm Workers movement and the family.

Albert Munoz, 79 years old, knew Cesar Chavez as a member of the Guadalupe Church parish during the 1950s, but also brought construction union support to Chavez and the farm workers movement. Al's father was a tenant farmer, and the family lost the farm and became farm workers, as did his wife's family. He and his wife had great sympathy for Chavez's effort to organize farm workers, particularly ex-Braceros. Many of Al's cousins and uncles had been Braceros, who suffered extensive labor abuses. As a teenager, in 1954, A1 joined the Plaster and Cement Mixers Union, where he worked his way up to the presidency. He and two other organizers met with Cesar at the UFW headquarters in La Paz. A1 was impressed by Chavez's law library and staff. But most impressive, was Chavez's ability to communicate, which A1 feels is the key to organizing. Chavez also stood up against discrimination against Mexicans, as well as his inclusion of the entire family into the UFW. In regard to Guadalupe Church, the entire parish helped to build the church at the new site in 1967. After it was built, they launched marches and picket lines to support the UFW. During this process, A1 was so impressed by Cesar's humbleness and quietness, his great Catholic faith and his undertaking of God's work. He is trying to commemorate Cesar's memory and work with the current parishioners. A1 and his family consider Cesar to be a holy man like Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Chavez's life shows that someone from a humble background can lead the way to a national civil rights movement.

Reverend Deacon Salvador Alvarez, who knew Cesar Chavez since the 1950s, went to the same parish, and eventually worked with the United Farm Workers Union as a lobbyist for both the state government and the federal government for 12 years. He became the "reverend deacon" for the farm workers movement. He spoke about the deep spirituality of CCsar, as reflected in his daily 2 % hours of prayer and meditation every morning beginning at 4 am, his involvement of the Catholic Church into the fabric of the UFWA, and his basic organizing approach of Christian non-violence. In fact Cesar revealed the fracture in the Catholic Church between the church hierarchy supporting the growers, and the parishioners supported CCsar and the United Farm Workers of America. Within the church, priests and nuns lobbied the church hierarchy to change its position and many were penalized for this work. In fact, Cdsar's work with the church reflected Vatican 11's position that the people are the church, not the buildings. The tactics that Chavez initiated, such as the march from Delano to Sacramento, were not meant as publicity stunts, but rather a reflect of Chavez' deep religious belief in penance. Rev. Alvarez's concern is for the secularization of Cesar Chavez by scholars, admirers, and community leaders. The public sees Cesar as a labor and civil rights leader, but not as a holy man, which formed the basis of his labor and civil rights work. All of this began at the original Guadalupe Church, now McDonnell Hall. These buildings serve as a national beacon, because it was from this site that the 1960s to Present Mexican American Civil Rights Movement and Farm Workers Movement began, and continues today. Even Dolores Huerta and Richard Chavez, recently stated that, "It all began in San Jose, at Guadalupe Church." The books written about the UFWA all reflect this beginning Santa Clara County Park & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-Group Interview in Sal Si Puedes. Many important people are tied to Cesar and this site, such as Robert Kennedy, in his run for the presidency in 1968 and his two visits to the church. Kennedy visited Guadalupe Church in route to Los Angeles, where he was killed.

The current priest at Guadalupe Church, Fr. Javier Reyes, gave a brief comment about how important it is to commemorate this site of Guadalupe Church, for the community, county, state and nation. He noted that he joined his Franciscan order because of their assistance to Chavez, in the face of retaliation by wealthy benefactors. He stated that Chavez was a national holy man, and this aspect of his life's work needs to be designated through a landmark. Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-Group Interview

SANTA CLARA COUNTY PARKS & RECREATION CESAR CHAW2 SITES ORAL HISTORY PROJEXT Contracted by Guerra & McBane LLC

Interviewees: Rudolph Chivez Medina (RCM) Rev. Deacon Salvador Alvarez (SA) Albert Munoz (AM) Comments by Fr. Javier Reyes (FR) Interviewers: Margo McBane, Ph.D., Armando Catalan (AC), Liliana Francisco (LF) Interview Date: August 27,2011 Interview Location: McDonnell Hall (group interview outside of hall) Videographer: Andrea Garcia and Ema Yamamoto Video Editor: Andrea Garcia Transcribers: 2ndDVD: Monica Gianera Audio-Editor: Margo McBane, Ph.D. Final DVD Producer: Keith Sanders Interview Length: 2ndDVD: 73 minutes Transcription Length: 2ndDVD: 14 pages

2"d DVD: RECTORY INDIVIDUAL INTERVIEWS RCM: Yeah, I'll have my sister try and dig them up and I'll go over there sometime, I'll try to get there Monday or Tuesday.

MM: And we'll talk to the County Parks & Rec about how long they can stall because you know your mom was excited but she had to leave, she had been at the memorial, which is when they wanted to start the project and you know, life interrupts so I don't know how long they will stall but I have a feeling they are under a really tight deadline because they want us to get everything to them in the next 2 weeks.

RCM: Ok.

MM: Two weeks from today is what our deadline is.

RCM: Alright. We'll attempt to comply (laughter).

MM: But Lily and I can come out to your mom's house or you can bring them up here, whatever is easiest for you.

RCM: Do you have a scanner? A portable scanner?

MM: Yes, we have a scanner, yeah we have a portable scanner. You don't have to give up anything, but you do have to be able to describe what it's about.

RCM: Yeah, I think I could and if not I'll just get my mom on the phone and she'll help out. Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-Group Interview

MM: Ok, ok and that's what we will do over here as soon as we are done with the individual interviews we will go through the book and have you two give memories about the photos that are there. Andrea can photograph them with a camera and then we will videotape your stories. That's great that you have that because anything that has pictures of the site is going to help us significantly.

RCM: Well that's a jewel to have.

MM: Iknow.

RCM: Especially in terms of this.

MM: And the sad thing your mom said is that she had a whole photo album on the CSO and somebody lost it.

RCM: Yep.

MM: So, that's tragic. So you were going to talk about some memories related to either Cesar and the church here or the new church.

RCM: Well let me first talk about the original Guadalupe Church, which is now McDonnell Hall.

MM: Can you just give your name so when people . . .

RCM: I'll have to check with my agent to see if that would be possible (laughter).

MM: Can you state your full name?

RCM: My full name is Rudolph Chavez Medina but they call me Rudy Medina, so, today is August 27Ih, 201 1. I am here giving historical perspective on the Guadalupe Church and its significance to Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Worker Movement. I have been in San Jose for all of my life, all 57 years. I was born in 1954 and in 1954 our family had already resided here in the neighborhood or the barrio known as Sal Si Puedes. The significance of McDonnell Hall and then Guadalupe Church to me was that that was location that I was baptized and that is also the location that many family members were either baptized, had received their first communion, were confirmed and were married. And when we talk about the new site, which is not the existing Guadalupe Church, that is the site that I was married and all of my 3 children were baptized. So the family, the Chavez family, the Medina-Chavez family had a real strong connection to this Parish and even though I live in another parish where the cathedral is my new parish and my kids went to Saint Joseph's School, which is a completely different parish, we always get drawn back to our roots. So the significance of this site, Guadalupe Church/McDonnell Hall, from my perspective, it's where we would have gatherings and we would have meetings when Cksar started his first thoughts of organizing farm workers , this is even pre-NFWA National Farm Workers Association, pre-UFW. We needed a central Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-Group Interview

location. We knew that we were supported here by the Parish and Father McDonnell for those efforts. So I can remember meetings that were held at my mother's house, which is closer to Sacred Heart and we would always say that we will meet at Guadalupe Church. We'll meet in front of the Hall or in front of the Parish, in front of the school, in front of the location, which was basically the middle of Sal Si Puedes. So, meetings were held at the Church, masses were held at the Church, celebrations were held at the Church, fiestas were held on the Church grounds at the Parish and without, I think, having this site, all of it, both the new and the old site together, in those early days, would have meant and would have caused it to be more difficult to organize the people in this community. Because this was a community and is a community church and it is a community parish so when you say Guadalupe Church, everyone knows exactly where to go. Even back then specifically and especially because it was a new church and it was a church for the community and for farm workers and so farm workers were drawn to it and they are drawn to Our Lady of Guadalupe. You'll see in a lot of the Mexican culture Our Lady of Guadalupe and shrines of Our Lady of Guadalupe because she is the matriarch of the Catholic Church. So, in the farm worker movement, in every major march and even some of the smaller marches, one of the things that Cesar always wanted at the head of the march, at the beginning of the march, was the Virgin Guadalupe and a UFW flag, a California flag if we were in California, and the United States flag. So even to this day when we have our annual march, here in San Jose, recognizing and commemorating CCsar, we always have what we call Estan Darte, which is the Virgin de Guadalupe, that is Our Lady of Guadalupe and it always leads our march and I think that comes from and that is almost mandated from Cesar, comes from the influence this site had on him, not only as a young man but also as an organizer and a leader of farm workers. He always believed that there is more than just the organizing that you need to have in order to get people's buy-in, in order to influence people and that influenced me to come from a stronger place and for us, and for our culture and our family, religion was the base, was the foundation. I think that without that foundation, that faith, that stability in those really tough times when he was getting death threats and when people were beating picketers on the lines in Delano, it would not have succeeded. That faith kept the farm worker movement together. When he was fasting, those three times that he fasted, his faith is what kept him on that fast and they weren't hunger strikes, it was actually a fast and the fast was showing his commitment to the cause and his commitment to the faith. All of that was solidified at this site, in this Parish by Father McDonnell.

MM: What role did the new church play in the United Farm Workers Union?

RCM: The new church was a mecca for activity. We would have meetings here, we would actually, when I joined the union in 1993 after Cesar passed, we would come to Guadalupe Church and we would distribute leaflets and we would actually give out No Grape videos during the grape strike and during the No Grape Campaign. That was just a continuation of the same activities that took place back in the early or mid 60s when the new church was finally erected. There were continuous celebrations and masses and the other thing about this Parish and these two sites, they hold a strong connection to CCsar and Cesar's family. When Cesar's father turned 101, my grandfather, we had a birthday celebration in the now McDonnell Hall and when he passed away a few years later we Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-Group Interview

had the memorial services here at the new Guadalupe Church. When my grandmother passed away about 12 years after that, we had an all night vigil here at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church and farm workers came and dignitaries came and all of our family members were here because this was the foundation of our family, our family's faith. So there is also a mural up at the site of he church, the existing church, that depicts CCsar and Dolores and Bobby Kennedy and if you look at that mural, I always say that there is a little boy that is standing in the comer (laughs) with a UFW flag, that's me. We have to talk to the muralist to make sure but he looks a heck of a lot like me so I am claiming that, whether it is true or not, but the key is that the support that this parish, all the pastors and entire dioceses gave to the United Farm Workers, kept that movement going. You know there were some really low times in the farm worker movement and some really exciting times and it didn't matter what range of that spectrum the farm workers and the UFW were in, they were always supported by this parish, they were always supported by the two sites and by the community here. So this is a very critical, important and essential part of the farm workers story. As I said earlier, this is the beginning of the story, everything started here, even prior to the United Farm Worker movement and the CSO. So even today it still continues to support and to assist the United Farm Workers and the movement and still continues to support the family. We have had so many weddings, baptisms, Quinceneras, funerals, all fiom the Chavez family and from other farm worker families that have always supported Cesar and the struggle.

MM: All right, I think that's it.

RCM: Oh, one more thing. So one more story about the new site is that when Robert Kennedy came in, I believe April of 1968, March of 1968, there were hundreds of people that had come to that service. And I recall, as a very young boy, in 1968 I was about 13 years old, and I was, if you believe it or not, I was thin and I had black hair and I was very quick so as Bobby was walking away from the church and through the huge crowd of people, I heard, by one of his Secret Service folks or his security, that he was going to go into the rectory so I snuck into the rectory and there I was with dignitaries and Father Soto and Bobby Kennedy and I looked on the desk and I saw a scratch piece of paper and a pencil and I grabbed it and I went up to Bobby and asked him for his autograph and he said sure so he wrote in pencil his name and I thought oh, that's easy, I'm going to try that again so I went and got another scratch piece of paper and asked him again and he gave me his autograph. I still have that autograph or actually my mom has it and I will never forget that day. It was one where I got to meet a real life icon, from my perspective, who has always supported the United Farm Workers. That is another example of what support this Parish has provided to CCsar and the United Farm Workers.

MM: Ok, thank you.

RCM: You're welcome.

MM: Alright, we are going to switch to Albert.

RCM: And this is the first interview I've ever done. Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-Group Interview

MM: No ....

RCM: I'm lying (laughter)!

MM: No, I don't think so! So you're the head of the water district, huh?

RCM: I used to work at the water district, now I work for BART

MM: Oh, you work for BART?

RCM: Yeah, Bay Area Rapid Transit District, I'm the department manager for the labor union relations.

MM: Oh, they are having all those problems right now.

RCM: Yeah, with police shootings and.. .

MM: Social networking issues.. ..

RCM: And anonymous people doing all kinds of wild and crazy things (laughter). It's a, it's non-stop. But I wouldn't have it any other way.

MM: So you didn't join the union until 1992?

RCM: Yes.

MM: Wow

RCM: Because that was, actually CCsar, before he passed away, had his Secretary of Treasure and several other volunteers housed in my union office, because I used to be the financial secretary for the Amalgamated Transit Union, which is a union that workers for the VTA [Valley Transit Authority] so they were in my office and I have a picture with Cesar in our charter for ATU and we are both standing in front of it. So I was, I mean whenever he came to town I was always part of his security because of the family you know, and people didn't really know who I was so it was really like I was undercover.

MM; Uh-huh

RCM: And it was good so.. .

MM: How long did he keep those dogs? Huelga and Boycott?

RCM: He kept them for, geez, quite a number of years. It wasn't until the late '70s or early '80s that they got too old to travel. They were something. And then there was another one, Max, who was the first, first dog. But Max was a little bit, let's just say rambunctious. He Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-Group Interview

was a really, really good guard dog. So CCsar was sitting someplace, and he was there, and Max, you know, dog's can sense fear or hormones, or something. And he would bite a couple of cousins in the butt a few times. He bit several people. So in public, you know, CCsar didn't want Max to be biting people, so that is when Boycott and Huelga came in. Then Max just hung around the house.

AG: Can you turn to me so I can just take a picture?

RCM: I thought that is just what you just did. You mean I have to look at you (laughing)? (Camera flashes)

RCM: Do you want a happy face?

AG: (flashing continues). Last one, perfect, thank you.

RCM: Alright. Pleasure meeting you all.

MM: So we will make copies of all of this for you, I told your mom we would do the same for her interview.

RCM: Ok.

MM: We're giving it to the county but we will make copies for you.

AM: You are so eloquent, how do I follow you? (laughter)

RCM: Let me tell you a secret of interviews, be normal, be natural, just be yourself. Thank you so much. People ask, "How do you do that?" But you just do it.

AM: Ok, tell me what you want me to talk about. Ask me questions.

MM: Ok, yeah, it's really going to be around the new church, you memories of the building of the church and it's involvement with CCsar and you.

AM: Ok.

MM: So again. It has to be very site driven.

AM: Um-hum.

MM: Like how CCsar and UFW related to that church and.. .

AM: Again I tell you that I cannot say that I was CCsar's personal friend or.. . .

MM: Oh no, no but you know at least how the church was.. Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chmez Sires Projecl by Guerra & McBane, LLC-Group Interview

AM: Right. My involvement was union to union.

MM: Yeah. You should talk about that too and we will actually ask you questions.

AM: I'll introduce myself by way of a short where I'm coming from.

MM: Good and we need your full name and that this is around the Guadalupe Church site.

SA: Al. You were a very, very significant primary source on the era that we are referring to in terms of your involvement here and your tie to the farm workers union and how was it with Cesar when you worked, all of the conversations that we have had before so don't be apologetic and I know for a fact how tied you were to the actual building of the church and then you being so involved in making sure that the church stay connected to the farm workers.

MM: So give your full name.

AM: My name is Albert MuAoz, better known in the parish as A1 but to my students as Mr. Al. I'm 79, I'm entering my 801h birthday and I've been in the Parish since 1959. My wife and I arrived here, when we moved into the area, we were formally from St. Joseph's Parish, we immediately took to Guadalupe, we were within walking distance of Guadalupe Church with small children. We had small children and they used to walk to church, if you can imagine that today, they used to walk to church on their own. Father McDonnell was still here and I didn't particularly work close with Father McDonnell but I knew of him and he was of tremendous influence. I was young, um, to back up a little bit, I'm also an ex-farm worker. My father was a tenant farmer, uh, from the time I was 10 to the time I was 18 I worked the fields. And my wife was also a field worker so we knew about the plight of the farm workers. So when Cesar started his movement we had a tremendous amount of sympathy for him and sympathy for the workers because we had had members of our own family who were here as Braceros who were working for 45 cents a day after they took everything out of their paycheck, room, board and anything else that they could think of. So I was very sympathetic to the farm worker movement but I was also a member of the Plaster and Cement Mixers Union which I had joined in 1954. I was very much a part of the union even though I was very young. I eventually worked myself up to president of the union. Again, my tremendous influence was Cesar Chavez. I met with him in La Paz, me and two other organizers and the influence grew even more. I was tremendously impressed with his law library and the people he had working there and his willingness to communicate, which has been a theme in my life now ever since then. Communicate, communicate, communicate. We ended up at 3:00 in the morning in his living room on his floor strategizing red lining and his wife making tortillas for us. That was my significant involvement with Cesar. But in the Parish, as we know in the beginning the Catholic Church, kind of, we thought, ignored them a little bit, they resisted. But Guadalupe was always sympathetic because we were, most of us were farm workers, most of us were Mexican Americans who had been in the fields and had suffered and had suffered discrimination to our faces. I am a product of the 1930s. And when someone who I considered a giant stood up and said, "This has got to stop," maybe Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-Group Interview

not in so many words but that is what he was saying to us, I was tremendously sympathetic. So when the new church was built, the new church being when we broke ground, I believe it was in 1967, when ground was broken, the movement had already started, the community was there, the community was already communicating, everything was already coming together. The people of this Parish physically built this church. And from there it went on, when the marches were on we had many parishioners who were supporting the farm workers and actively working with the farm workers. I, at that time, was already working within my own union, walking my own picket lines and supporting the farm workers in any way that I could. It was very important to me that my own union follow the examples that CCsar had set. One of the themes that I had come back with from meeting CCsar in La Paz was that they considered, or he considered everybody in the family a union man or a union woman, not just the person which is a concept that we didn't have in our union and I came back and spread that. So it was very, very important. We would look up sometimes at mass and CCsar would be sitting there very quiet. I admired his humbleness. I have forever tried to be like him, I don't think I could ever be like him but he is an example and it's been said before, he is doing God's work and we believe, me and my wife, that we were doing God's work. We have, over the years, just admired him and now, we are working now to do some things in the Parish that has never been done to honor him even further and uh.. .

MM: What are you doing to honor him?

AM: Well, I have personally started a dialogue in terns of putting a statue up for him, this is probably the first time I'm going to say it publically and so we are working on that quite a bit.

LF: Would you consider the new church as, almost like a meeting ground where several different organizations would come to socialize or network and maybe, not let go of their differences but kind of meet here in a place where they have some sort of similarity?

AM: Absolutely. Absolutely this has been a melting pot if you will of organizations that have come together, one of them is the farm workers. As the population changes in the parish people tend to fade in terms of CCsar7smemory and we who were around are in charge of letting people know who they are, who CCsar was, what he has done for his generation but for future generations. The importance of it, let's not forget it. In my family we look at CCsar Chavez in the same light that we look at Gandhi and at Martin Luther King. We think of him as that important. And we try to let our chiidren and grandchildren and now great-grandchildren know who he was, to know that people with humble beginnings can do great things. I think that he has lead the way for people, young people, when I sit now and I see people, Mexican Americans, well educated, having responsible positions, I think of how great it is and I think that CCsar was one of them, one of the leaders that made this possible in his own way. And I think that we have to do something to honor him. I delight in thinking that McDonnell Hall will someday be what it was, the start of many beginnings and I am tremendously proud to have been part of that generation. Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-Group Interview

LF: As far as the new church, and breaking ground, how big of an influence do you think that had on the community as far as having more people become involved and maybe them seeing, if they weren't already involved, wow, look what they have accomplished, they are now making a new church for us.

AM: I think it allowed more people to come in, the McDonnell Hall, when it was the parish it was very small, very, very small and not many people would come here. Once they erected the new church it was an opportunity for more people to come here and again I go back to communications and leadership. With communication we were able to communicate to other groups to come in and start communicating and supporting people and the great boycott was very significant, it was very, very big here, very, very supportive here. People would leave here and go picket from the Parish so it was very significant. That is only one aspect of it but there is also a group of Cesar Chavez, a little group that gets together and tries to promote it to, I have not dealt with them too much but the significant thing is these are now people who were not here at that time, they are from another generation, but they are trying to honor him, in many different ways, pushing for holidays, pushing for many, many things. Let's not forget who he was but I think the support is absolutely here. We now have the support of the, I shouldn't say now, but we now have the support of the priests here, which in some cases in the beginning not all of the priests were all that sympathetic but now it's unanimous. That is very, very good. You know, we go back when different religious organizations like the Presentation Sisters, in particular Sister Gloria Loya, who is not a professor at I think U.C. Berkeley, who was tremendously important in the support and teaching. I guess if you sum it up in terms of the education that the Hispanic has received here is invaluable, is invaluable and we still continue or try to continue that line of thought: educate, educate, educate. It all started with Cesar and if we get people and when we get people to support Cesar, to support the movement, we honor him as if he were still here. In many ways he isn't gone, he's still here. When I see his family come here and I say well Cesar is still here, he left a legacy and we will always support him. As a person who has been in this Parish for many, many years, who has served in every capacity in the Parish over the years, I will always work to honor and support what he has done, not only in San Jose, not only in California but throughout the United States. As an ex-farm worker, I feel for him, as an ex-union man I, a construction man, I also feel so.. .

MM: That's great Albert, thank you.

AG: Can I take some pictures?

MM: Reverend Alvarez, can you give your full name?

SA: Yes, I am Reverend Deacon Salvador Enrique Alvarez and I was ordained in 1979 by Archbishop for the Archdiocese in San Francisco and I wanted to address the question of the spirituality of Cesar Chavez and its roots here, Cesar's roots. I have been very concerned that, about the secularization of Cesar Chavez and viewing him as a labor leader, civil rights leader but without any connection to here at Guadalupe Church. So there is a gap there, that is there in terms of how he is being portrayed. And I wanted to Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-Group Interview

express how much we appreciate your presence in coming to Guadalupe Church, which is my home parish. As I have indicated Guadalupe Church here, when it was established as a Mission, and as I have described what happened and how it became a Mission was a spiritual center for those of us that resided in East San Jose, surrounded by orchards, thousands of acres of orchards and I know that the sacredness, which Mr. Muiioz, A1 Mufioz, addressed his involvement here. I can't say enough about, about how honored I am to be here with A1 Mufioz, who described his involvement here. I think that both McDomell Hall, formerly Guadalupe Church, and the new church here are national beacons because it was out of here that sprung so much life in terms of the civil rights movement of the Latino or the Mexican American community in the United States. This is a national site and when I testified before Congress in regard to the need to have resource study done and the need to establish a national Char Chavez Trail, at the invitation of Congresswoman Hilda Solis, who is now Secretary of Labor. When I testified, I testified to the fact that the trail needed to start here in San Jose. And so I think that what I wanted to express in terms of the question of spirituality of CCsar Chavez is that the family that arrived here from Atascadero, as Richard Chavez described. Their car drove up here at the comer of King.Road and Alum Rock Avenue and then the description of how somebody told them to a place here, in the Sal Si Puedes area and then Peter Matthiessen naming a book Sal Si Puedes, the whole book Sal Si Puedes, and other sources have chapters called "Sal Si Puedes." We are in Sal Si Puedes, we're in an area that not only gave birth to the farm worker movement but one which continues to be the center of the justice movements here in San Jose, most recently the 100,000 that marched past here to go to City Hall, an immigrants rights movement, and there is even a booklet. So this is the life center then of the continuation of the social justice and the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement that began as we have described already in other statements that we have made. So I am honored to be working with A1 Mufioz and Father Javier Reyes in promoting this as a historical site. We are all remiss that more hasn't been more done to do this. I think had if it not been for Congresswoman Hilda Solis and the study we are doing, it probably would still be in a standstill in this regard. So that the county is interested in making sure that the application goes through, that's because, the county is doing that because people like Dave Cortese [Santa Clara County Board of Supervisor] feel that CCsar and Bobby Kennedy, both historical figures here in this location, you can't separate Guadalupe Church from either CCsar or Bobby Kennedy. As I said before, the relationship between Bobby and Cesar developed during the presidential race in 1960. Bobby came here because he knew that this is where it started. He knew that. He knew that because Ernie Abeytia and Cesar told him, "This is where it started." So when he came to campaign here for president in 1968. He came, you know he came twice, he came that March and then he came just before, it wasn't a rally but he came back to visit here. Very few people know that, that he came to visit here the Sunday before he flew out to Los Angeles and that afternoon he was killed. And the waiter that gave him the Rosary when he was shot and before he died, Bobby was given a Rosary. That, that person is here in San Jose. So there is that tie that exists here. So the spirituality of Cesar Chivez is deeply, deeply rooted here. So my concern over the years is that all the streets and all the places that have been named after him and stuff like that and people studying the history of CCsar don't really understand clearly how he used to get up at 4:00 in the morning and pray for Sanfa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-Group interview

2 % hours and the conversations that I had with him in terms of, "Teach me how to meditate, Cesar." He had a profound prayer life, profound, profound prayer life. If you go to the historical site, where is he buried now, there are 4 or 5 places that I have identified where he would go and pray early in the morning, when he was there. But I know that, much like Gandhi, he had a deep, deep spiritual growth path that he followed that stems from this location, this community and the suffering that was taking place then at that time, where he describes what the police did in Los Angeles and why he listened to Fred Ross was that, that bloody killing of Latinos there, the police here, police brutality was happening here, too. So the suffering that was taking place here as exemplified by a statement to Richard out in the orchards here, "We can't feed our families here, we can't support our families here, it's too poor, you know, we can't feed our families." So out of that suffering came statements by Cesar later, "Unless we suffer with others, we cannot continue." So he taught us, in Guadalupe Church here at McDonnell Hall, when he went to church he saw the cross and he saw who he believed in, Jesus Christ, as a person who suffered. He took up that cross and all of us have understood that if we are going to work toward social change, the sacrifice means undergoing suffering. So today, if you come at 8:00 am mass here at Guadalupe Church and you see 100, 150 people praying and all of the candles that are lit for Our Lady Guadalupe, it's because they are coming here to pray over the suffering of other people that they know about, that are undocumented or in jail or whatever it is. So all of that, to me, led me eventually to, through high school with Luis Valdez, through San Jose State University with him, through U.C. Berkeley to get my Masters Degree and then I ended up working for the United States Catholic Conference and then, boom, I landed in 1967 with Cesar, asking Cesar, as a representative of the United States Catholic Conference national staff, "What can the Church do?" And he says, "Well, get me a priest!" And so I was part of the delegation of the Franciscan community and Mark Day got assigned and when the book by Mark Day, Forty Acres, came out and so Cesar and I understood that in order for the movement to work, there needed to be labor priests in the union, like Father McDonnell, who I described earlier. And so the clergy that emerged within the union, Father Ed, who was there for many years hll-time, Father Mark Day, Father Gene Boyle, Father Kenny, from Sacramento, who used to fly Cesar, you know, he was the flying priest. I can give you Father Louis Olivares, out of Los Angeles, Father Romero, Father, the Bishop from San Antonio. We were the, we were to Cesar the leaven within the church. This church here, Guadalupe Church, symbolized then, that despite the fact that [the Catholic Church] hierarchy was siding, in the valley, was siding with the growers, that the local church, the Mexican American [Catholic] church was going to side with Cesar. So that created real tension between the local church, the Father McDonnells, here and elsewhere with the hierarchy. We ended up, about 300 of us, going to San Francisco to go picketing the bishops in San Francisco and Sister Gloria Loya was one of those that put pressure on the bishops, "You cannot stand with the growers, you must stand with the workers." Guadalupe Church was part of that history of standing with Cesar and the farm worker movement against the power of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. So Cesar and I had that special relationship because I was working for the U.S. Catholic Conference, putting pressure on the bishops with Monsignor, Cardinal Mahony, Roger Mahony was a Monsignor in Fresno and who then chaired the Bishops Committee on farm labor. So some of us joined the farm worker march from Delano to Sacramento. Santa Clara Counly Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-Group Interview

And Father Gene Boyle, who we still want you to interview, was told by the Archbishop, "If you go over there, you are going to get punished." And he did, he went and joined, and the Archbishop punished him and removed him. And so there was that, what I call "good tension," between the activist priests like Father McDonnell but Father McDonnell is the, he is the standard, because the Monsignor's like Gene Boyle were very conservative. The story of Monsignor Gene Boyle, he was a cufflink guy. The conversion of Monsignor Gene Boyle and other priests and other religious leaders was by the farm workers and the sacrifices that they were making because that march from Delano to Sacramento was about doing penance. It was a penitente march. It was not against the growers, CCsar very clearly said, "We haven't done enough in our Mexican American community to make the sacrifice, to make the union possible. We can't blame the growers." So for those of us that wanted to demonize the growers and say, "They are evil." CCsar would come back and say, "No, our salvation is dependent on their salvation. We cannot demonize the rich and the powerful. We've got to work towards their conversion." And so that was, wow, the spirituality of CCsar Chavez was like what!? Whoa. Yeah. That's the non-violent struggle that came out, "Love your enemy." "What? Love your enemy, give me a break!! !" So my experience with CCsar was personal. Dolores will tell you that I had a very special relationship with CCsar, that goes back to '67 when he asked me for a priest and I got him one. And he knew I was a Cursista. So I'm very honored to be able to sit here and be able to say that, "Yes, CCsar and I were close." When I left teaching at the university, I was assigned to him and he assigned me to Sacramento and then the 12 years, I was 7 in Sacramento and then 5 in [Washington] D.C. I reported to him and Dolores. I think that the personal conversations that we had about the struggle and the spirituality, the prayer life that he had, my asking, "Teach me to pray Cesar, teach me to pray."

[Entrance of Fr. Reyes to the room] So I wanted to say that the reason why I led, right after CCsar died, is I was asked to be at the procession end as a deacon. When CCsar's father died, Monsignor Gene Boyle and I organized the mass here at Guadalupe Church. When his mother died it was here. When they were in the hospital, I was called to be there. I've been considered the farm worker movement deacon, ok, a labor deacon. When Richard Chavez passed away, I led the Rosary for Richard. Richard and I had just spent, 3 weeks before, a whole week together going to where CCsar was born and where Richard was born and Rita was born, in Yuma. And I went to go pick up Richard at La Paz and took him to Yuma, the 7 hour drive. It was there that he said, before the National Park Service, "It all began in San JosC." And the day before Richard died, Dolores Huerta and Richard and Raymond Rast had lunch together and Dolores and Richard told Raymond, who is going to be here tomorrow, at this site tomorrow, he is flying in this evening and I'm going to pick him up at 10:OO in the morning to go and interview Monsignor Boyle and then he is going to interview Father Reyes and so he'll be here tomorrow. But Dr. Rast asked Richard and Dolores, "Tell me about San Jose." And they said, "It all started here, at Guadalupe Church."

AC: Can you go back to Guadalupe Church and McDomell Hall, as much as Cesar was influenced by Father McDonnell and the church, he also influenced people who came, who gathered here, parishioners like Mr. Muiioz, who says he was influenced by knowing Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-Group Interview

CCsar Chavez was here and he organized. Did CCsar Chavez find a place or was Guadalupe Church treated as a space created for CCsar to influence other people to organize or to follow his example and to support in near future his creation of the farm workers union?

SA: The way that I would describe it is, what Harvard calls relationary theory in terms of negotiating and addressing conflicts is relationary theory goes this way: whatever was negotiated between CCsar and Father McDomell, became personal, because Father McDomell came to Cesar's house, and Richard describes it to me in very, very detail. Father McDomell would come to their house and they would be watching boxing, they loved boxing. And he would go and turn the television off and say, "We are going to pray the Rosary." And everybody would, because when Father McDonnell came, that's the kind of respect that he had and the kind of love that they had for him. So the church has described in Vatican 11, it is not the building, it's the people. The communion between Father McDonnell and CCsar that was so strong that when Father McDomell said, "Hey, we are going to get a building donated to us over here. There was a parish over here, I need to you to come." And so there they are sawing like crazy, you know, sweating and everything and sawing because Father McDomell asked him to do that and then put it back together again. And so, A1 said it and other people have said it, organizing is one-to-one. Fred Ross has said it, organizing is one-to- one. And so who organized who? Did Father McDonnell organize CCsar or did CCsar organize him or what, right? In any case we know that the relationship led to the actual, you know, going to mass at the Puerto Rican Hall that was too small and we got this other building, which is now McDomelI Hall, which was Guadalupe Church, and then they have a bigger building now. But the point here is that Cesar knew, and the rest of the people knew that the people are the church, not the building. Memorializing McDonnell Hall is important in understanding in that context. That the love that developed between Rita Chavez and Father McDonnell, our family with Father McDonnell, I didn't know him personally but I saw him, and you know, we loved him because he stood with us, he drove a jeep and prayed the rosary out in the open with a microphone, he was a person of the people, ok. Much like Father Reyes is now. You wouldn't see Father Reyes running around with a collar on. He would just walked in and you wouldn't think he was a priest and so that was Father McDomell too. So that said, I hope that answers your question, if not I might have lost it. But I think your time is going and Father Reyes, boy, to take advantage of the present pastor who has signed the papers to designate McDonnell Hall as a historical site is in itself history that we have him here.

[background noise, changing seats. Goes on for a while, discussing how to copy pictures. Salvador Alvarez talks a bit about the pictures and the history.]

MM: Ok, so we ask everyone to give their full names.

FR: My name is Fr. Javier Reyes and I am the pastor of this church, Our Lady of Guadalupe.

MM: Ok and so Reverend Alvarez was suggesting to ask you what is your knowledge of the significance of Father McDonnell Hall? Santa Clara County Park & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-Group Interview

FR: Well, I think right now, for the people, maybe they don't realize how important it is because the inspiration of the way this church functioned is because CCsar Chavez influenced the whole community of justice and being with the poor and just the inspiration and that started at McDonnell Hall and I think we have a lot of leaders, who like Sal and Al, who work in social justice and somehow they got inspired but like CCsar Chavez and the whole building is like made possible to have some influence.

MM: Ok, and then also what do you consider the significance of the current church to CCsar Chavez's work with the United Farm Workers and why is it significant in that way?

FR: Well, this church, you know the history of it in more than just social justice, so now the people who have some concern for social justice, they all come to this church, I know that they all love church and social justice too but for the Mexicans and Latinos, they all come and see the church like for the root for doing something about it. That is why this church is really very important and we can have on like December 12" the Lady of Guadalupe celebration and people from everywhere comes and they must feel something about what touched them to come, even the situation, its like they feel like the struggle continues but that they still have some hope. I see this church as the hope for many people, especially the poor people and all kinds of immigrant people.

SA: The Franciscan community support for the farm worker movement here, could you comment about that?

FR: Actually I would like to say something, something very personal because I really admired CCsar Chavez before I was coming to Guadalupe. Because like 22 years ago today prior I hear the Franciscan frars they have a lot of support from the rancheros, the rich people that have the farms. But when CCsar Chavez was working in Guadalupe, and he started to have the problems with those rancheros, the Franciscans hide him in Oakland and many problems started because many of those rich people used to sustain us and give us donations for all kinds of things. They stopped giving donations to us. It made me feel like there is something wrong with this, it made me make my vocation strong because I now that Franciscans stand for what is true for the good people and I believe CCsar Chavez was really a people of the Gospel, a man for the people and that has really been inspired and I know that the Franciscans, before we used to get all our parishes to get the young people and take them to Delano just to see and to learn about the life of CCsar Chavez and the whole movement. For me I think before I started I went to Delano, it was one of the things that made me try to be with the Franciscan friars.

SA: Father, you have got the application from the City of San Jose Planning Commission to designate McDonnell Hall as a historic site in the city of San Jose and Dr. McBane is here working on the application for the National Park Service. What is your vision of what you would like to see McDonnell Hall become as a historical site?

FR: I was talking with A1 and Sal and people who knew CCsar Chiivez and people who knew that the McDonnell Hall was a very important place for CCsar Chavez. Actually he was Santa Clara County Park & Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Project by Guerra & McBane, LLC-Group Interview

working over there but it was really very sad that we never had something really special about Cesar Chavez because I not only believe that he was a good organizer, a good man and a good Christian. I believe that he was a holy man. Now I feel very proud to be the one who might sign the McDonnell Hall to be a historical land because I know that we have to do something about CCsar Chavez. Whenever I go to different places, schools, streets, parks, named to honor Cesar Chavez. Right here we don't have anything when he got inspired so I believe something was wrong, something wasn't right. So I don't know, things will come together for something and I will pray, I have to believe that the hand of God is in all of this. I believe that the McDonnell Hall needs to be like it was before, a holy place because many holy people were working there for the good of many people. You know, not only that but hopefully we leave for this barrio that is very poor, maybe to have like a church to be special, it will change the lives of some people and honor the life of Cesar Chavez. He was inspiration really give something of us to the other people. To give meaning to our lives. I think that would be a good dream for me not only because I will be important in signing the paper (laughter) but because Cesar Chavez deserves it and this place deserves it. We need to have something to honor his struggle and his way of organizing and I know that he was a very faithful man and we need more people in this barrio, in this county, and in this state and right here, this place, it should be.

SA: Thank you. Are we talking about restoring it as a chapel?

FR: Yes.

SA: Putting in the stained glass windows and restoring it to its original form.

MM: Thank you.

FR: Thank you very much. Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Oral History Project 2011 Release Form

audio- and video-taped oral histories of the people identified by Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation who have a relationship to Fr. McDonnell Hall and Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, both in San Jose, California.

Interviewees will also be asked to share related documentary materials (such as photographs and manuscripts) that may be deposited in the permanent collections of Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation's County Archives, as well as a copy for public access in the California Room of the Martin Luther King Jr. Library in San Jose, California. These interviews and documentary materials will assist to document the historical significance of these two sites and may be used for scholarly and educational purposes.

I understand that the Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation plans to retain the product of my participation as part of its permanent collection and that the materials may be used for exhibition, publication, presentation on the World Wide Web and successor technologies. This information from these interviews may be also used for educational and research purposes in the analog and digital exhibition, publication, documentary, and research project, BeJbre Silicon Valley: A Mi~anrPath to Mexican American Civil Right.s Project, a project of San Jose State University and coordinated by Margo McBane PhD, under whom this project is being conducted for the Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department.

I hereby grant to the Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department ownership of the physical property and the right to use the property that is the product of my participation, including my interview, performance, photographs, and written materials, as stated above. By giving permission, I understand that I do not give up any copyright or performance rights that I may hold.

I also grant to Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department my absolute and irrevocable consent for any photograph(s) provided by me or taken of me in the course of my participation in the project to be used, published, and copied by Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department and its assignees in any medium.

I agree that Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department may use my video or photographic image or likeness, statements, performance, and voice reproduction, or other sound effects without further approval on my part.

I release Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department, and its assignees and designees, from any and all claims and demands arising out of or in connection with the use of such recordings, documents, and artifacts, including but not limited to, any claims for defamation, invasion ofprivacy, or right of publicity.

ACCEPTED AN Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Cesar Chavez Sites Oral History Project 2011 Release Form

k 1, -- &kt rilun~ , am a participant in the Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Cesar Chavez Sit s Oral History Project. I understand that the purpose of this project is to collect audio- and video-taped oral histories of the people identified by Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation who have a relationship to Fr. McDonnell Hall and Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, both in San Jose, California.

Interviewees will also be asked to share related documentary materials (such as photographs and manuscripts) that may be deposited in the permanent collections of Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation's County Archives, as well as a copy for public access in the California Room of the Martin Luther King Jr. Library in San Jose, California. These interviews and documentary materials will assist to document the historical significance of these two sites and may be used for scholarly and educational purposes.

I understand that the Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation plans to retain the product of my participation as part of its permanent collection and that the materials may be used for exhibition, publication, presentation on the World Wide Web and successor technologies. This information from these interviews may be also used for educational and research purposes in the analog and digital exhibition, publication, documentary, and research project, Before Silicon Vallg: A Migrant Path to MPxcan American Civil Rights Project, a project of San Jose State University and coordinated by Margo McBane PhD, under whom this project is being conducted for the Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department.

I hereby grant to the Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department ownership of the physical property and the right to use the property that is the product of my participation, including my interview, performance, photographs, and written materials, as stated above. By giving permission, I understand that I do not give up any copyright or performance rights that I may hold.

I also grant to Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department my absolute and irrevocable consent for any photograph(s) provided by me or taken of me in the course of my participation in the project to be used, published, and copied by Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department and its assignees in any medium.

I agree that Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department may use my video or photographic image or likeness, statements, performance, and voice reproduction, or other sound effects without further approval on my part.

I release Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department, and its assignees and designees, from any and all claims and demands arising out of or in connection with the use of such recordings, documents, and artifacts, including but not limited to, any claims for defamation, invasion of privacy, or right of publicity.

ACCEPTED AND AGREE Interviewee Signature ~ate/S- 27 A$' V - - b Printed Name / r .c JkAA02 Address 3r44, & /7 /d M p t'

City 1QS&'A Jn$2 state < 4- ZIP qd-\n(^ 7 -

Interviewer Signatures: YJ 3p ~ate-&?2I/-

CESAR CHAVEZ HISTORY QUESTIONS ABOUT 2 SITES: GUADALUPE CHURCH AND FR. MCDONNELL HALL ESTABLISH SIGNIFICANCE AND INTEGRITY OF THE PROPERTIES SANTA CLARA VALLEY COUNTY PARKS PROJECT 8/21/2011

REVEREND DEACON SAL ALVAREZ, RUDY MEDINA (RITA CHAVEZ MEDINA7SSON, AND CURRENT PRIEST OF OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE (POSSIBLY MONSEIGNER BOYLE) 81271201 1 Saturday, at site Our Lady of Guadalupe Church and Fr. McDomell Hall, San Jose

1. How and when did you all know Cesar Chavez in relation to this site?

2. Did you live in Sal Si Puedes during the 1950s and early 1960s? a. Could you describe Sal Si Puedes in the 1950s when Fr. McDomell initially built the Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission? b. What were the streets like, the housing, sidewalks, lights, school district? Was there a church in Sal Si Puedes when you first moved there?

3. Guadalupe Church and Fr. McDomell Hall a. Where did you go to church when your family was living in Sal Si Puedes before Guadalupe Church was built? Was the congregation mostly Mexican or Anglo? How far did you have to travel to get there? b. Originally how did Fr. McDomell establish Guadalupe Church? Where did the congregation 1'' meet? How did Guadalupe Church get built? What was the property before Fr. McDonnell made it into a church? c. Fr. McDomell's early congregation first met in a Puerto Rican Hall. Where was that? It is still standing? Where is the original Guadalupe Church. d. Initially, when Fr. McDomell oversaw the congregation Guadalupe Church was a mission, it did not become a full fledged church until it was built in the 1960s. According to the Archdiocese of Santa Clara County the current church was built in the 1960s and actually Fr. McDomell had left the congregation by then. What events took place in what places? e. There was an older church built on the property before the current church was constructed in the 1960s. It that older church still standing? Where was it located? When was Guadalupe Church 1'' built? Did the congregation participate in the building of the church? f. When was Fr. McDonnell Hall built (I can find no records of it in the county Archdiocese Archives)? g. What was the relationship between Guadalupe Church and other Catholic churches in the Santa Clara area? St. Patrick's Church? Sacred Heart Church? Five Wounds Church? h. How did Cesar meet Fr. McDonnell? Some histories say that Fr. McDonnell went door to door getting people from Sal Si Puedes to help built a church because none existed. Cesar was one of those that responded to Fr. McDonnell's appeal. Garcia and Griswold Del Castillo say that Cesar met Dr. McDomell because he regularly attended church in Sal Si Puedes? i. In the documents I read at the Archdiocese of Santa Clara, Fr. Donald McDonnell came from St. Patrick's Church in San Jose to Sal Si Puedes in 1952 to find out about establishing a church there. Then I read in Garcia and Griswold Del Castillo that McDomell and McCullough were sent by the Archdiocese of SF to go to the San Joaquin Valley to work with farmworkers. What do you know about this? j. What were your impressions of Fr. McDonnell? k. What influence did Fr. McDonnell have on Cesar Chavez? How did Fr. McDonnell mentor or educate Chavez in the methods of community organizing? 1. What was your role in the creation of the church? How long have you been or were you a member of Guadalupe Church? How long was Cesar? m. Were the members of the congregation supportive of the social justice issues that Fr. McDomeIl and Cesar Chavez undertook during their partnership? How many of these activities took place on the property? How did the activist community use the church property? What other social justice causes related to Cesar Chavez took place on the property?

4. Rise of the CSO and use of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church and Fr. McDonnell Hall by Cesar Chavez a. What was the Unity Council and what was its relationship to the development of the CSO in this area? b. Did you know Fred Ross? Could you describe him as a person. i. Could describe the organizing techniques he used with the CSO in San Jose? (Alinsky method: make change one person at a time. Fred Ross technique: the house meeting). c. How did Fred Ross and Cesar use Guadalupe Church and the nearby hall? Were these meeting places? Social places? What did the CSO use them for? d. What role did Cesar play in the development of the CSO locally? Was he ever on the local chapter executive board of the CSO? When and how long was he director of the SJ Chapter of the CSO? What were his experiences in San Jose as director of the CSO? What was Rita's role with the CSO in San Jose? (discuss Cesar and Rita's confrontation with CSO and African Americans-SJ chapter had 50 AA through NAACP led by UCB student Webster Sweet. Mexican restaurant owner and CSO board member denied them service. You and Cesar and another CSO Board member, Ernie Abeytia, called a meeting to discipline Felix Leon for not permitting Afi-ican Americans to eat in restaurant. 7 of the Executive board resigned and 70% of CSO chapter resigned. The following Sunday, the former CSO leaders put out leaflets in Mexican Churches and supermarkets in English and Spanish saying "Rita Chavez and the CSO are a bunch of niggerlovers". The San Jose CSO Chap was reduced from 800 to 100. Chavez noted the poor Mexicans supported the CSO constitution and black equality, it was the middle class Mexican that left. e. Why did he leave the CSO to form the UFWA?

5. Formation of the UFWA and use of Fr. McDonnell Hall and Our Lady of Guadalupe Church by Cesar Chavez a. How did Cesar Chavez use Guadalupe Church and Fr. McDonnell Hall after the formation of the UFWA? b. Why was the Boycott Headquarters located at Sacred Heart Church and not Guadalupe Church? c. What was Rita's role with the formation and creation of the UFW? d. When did Fr. McDomell leave the site? The Diosys records said a new priest took over in the 1960s where the new church was built. e. Could you describe the development of Migrant Ministry? Where and when did it evolve? Was it involved with this site? f. Was Monsignor Boyle involved with Cesar Chavez and this site? What were his experiences?

6. Do you have anything to add as to why these two sites, Guadalupe Church and Fr. McDonnell Hall are significant to Cesar Chavez and his work with the UFWA?

7. Do you have suggestions of other people to interview in relation to this site? Research Notes/Bibliography prepared by Reverend Deacon Salvador Alvarez Fr. Donald McDonnell

Jacques Levy' book, Cesar Chavez: Autobiography of La Causa co~irmswhat Richard Chavez and Dolores Chavez have said, "It all started in San Jose". Levy quotes Cesar on Fr. McDonnell, in his chapter entitled: My Education Starts. "Actually my education started when I met Father Donald McDonnell, who came to Sal Si Puedes because there was no Catholic church there, no priest, and hundreds of Mexican Americans. We were some of the first members that joined his congregation for masses in a little Puerto Rican hall that was just a broken-down little shack." P. 89

"Father McDonnell was about my age. We became great friends when I began to help him, doing little carpentry work, cleaning up the place, getting some chairs, and painting some old benches. I also drove for him and helped him recite mass at the bracero camps and in the county jail." P.89

"And then we did a lot of reading. That's when I started reading the Encyclicals, St. Francis, and Gandhi and having the case for attaining social justice explained. As Father McDonnell followed legislation very closely, he introduced me to the transcripts of the Senate LaFollette Committee hearings held in 1940 in Los Angeles." P.9 1

"They called me, and 1 got back to San Jose Saturday. The next day, early Sunday morning, in every Catholic church were Mexicans go, there were stacks of leaflets printed in Mexico and English saying, "Rita Chavez and the CSO are a bunch of nigger lovers." But they attached Ernie (Abeytia) and his wife even harder. They called his wife a whore. It was filthy. Fr. McDonnell found the leaflets at 5:00 a.m. mass in Guadalupe Church, and called me at the house. I rushed out there." Page 124

"Dolores Huerta Recalls: It was Father Thomas McCullough and Father Donald McDonnell who went back East to Walter Reuther and George Meany about putting money into organizing fmworkers." Page 145.

"Father McCullough and Father McDonnell sponsored ASW and wrote the constitution." p. 146 Father Donald Mc Donne11

Fred Ross went door to door in Sal Si Puedes looking for someone to lead the voter registration drive among Chicanos. "Three weeks later, Ross had almost exhausted his list of people to contact without finding the person who could direct the registration campaign. Then he head about Cesar and Helen Chavez fio a San Jose public health nurse and fiom Father Donald McDomell, a neighborhood Catholic priest. Chavez had befriended McDonnell af'ter settling in San Jose, and he had started accompanying him to nearby labor camps to talk to Mexican braceros about their problems." P.38 (The Fight in the Fields)

"Cesar was a slow but disciplined reader, and McDomell introduced him to books he couldn't help but absorb. He read about Saint Francis of Assisi and read the teachings of Saint Paul. Later Chavez discovered biographies of American labor giants like John L. Lewis and Eugene Debs...But the most influential books were biographies of the Indian independence fighter Mahatma Gandhi, and Ganhdi's own writings."

"After his experience with McDonnell, Chavez was ready to learn something new from Ross-especially if it yielded political change and not just charity. As his brother Richard, who also joined CSO, recalls, "I guess we were ripe for it.'' Cesar's sister Rita and Lenny, the youngest, also got involved." P. 47 (The Fight in the Fields)

See picture of Sal Si Puedes page 38. Father Donald McDonnell

"Chavez's odyssey finally took him back to San Jose, where he went to work in the apricot orchards. At this juncture, in 1952, fate stepped into his life in the person of Fred Ross of the Community Services Organization. Of all the people who have attached themselves to Chavez, Ross is by far the most impressive. I talked to him about his early days with Chavez one afternoon in the coffee shop of the Stardust Motel. "Cesar was living in an area Called Sal Si Puedes, which means 'Get Out if You Can,' Rosss said. It was a tough slum with a high proportion of San Quentin alumni. I was trying to organize CSO chapters, and Helen Chavez's name had been given to me by a Mexican American public-health nurse." P.66 (Delano) Fr. Donald McDonnell

"Cesar was a close friend of Father Don McDonnel17swhen the latter served as a young parish priest in the East San Jose area. McDonnell showed a deep interest in the economic plight of the barrio-dwellers. The young priest was notable in the he lived poorly and communicated fluently in Spanish with his parishioners. He also knew a great deal about farm-labor history, and Cesar often mentions that the priest taught him about the church's social teachings on the rights of the working man." P. 18 (Forty Acres)

"There were several attempts to organize farm workers....The most recent attempts had been aided by two Catholic priests: Fathers Donald McDonnell and Tomas McCullough. There were partially responsible for founding the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO. P. 17 (Forty Acres). Fr. Donald McDonnell

The book, Sal Si Puedes, by ivlatthlessen indicates "....ainong the names given to the CSO organizer by the parish priest, Father Donald ILlcDonnell, was that of Cesar Chavez. Research Notes/Bibliography prepared by Reverend Deacon Salvador Alvarez McDonnell Hall

Research project sources: Rev. Deacon Sal Alvarez, Diocese of San Jose

1. Delano: The Story of the California Grape Strike by John Gregory Dunne, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York, 1967...... page 50.. ..Fr. James L. Vizzard, S.J...... page 56. ..." in the CSO that Chavez matured, distilling his belief that farm workers should be organized and that this organization would have to come from within." ...... page 66-69.. .."ChavezYsodyssey £inally took him back to San Jose. .."

2. Forty Acres: Cesar Chavez and the Farm Workers by Mark Day, Praeger Publishers, New York, 1971...... " There had been several attempts to organize farm workers.. . .The most recent attempts had been aided by two Catholic priests: Fathers Donald McDomell and the Thomas McCullough." Page 17 ...... Cesar was a close fiiend of Father Don McDonneU's when the latter served as a young parish priest in the East San Jose Area.....p age 18 ...... " Father Alan McCoy was named superior of all the Franciscans in the western United States.... .page 20 3. h the Footsteps of Gandhi: Conversations with Spiritual Social Activists by Catherine Ingram, Parallax Press, Berkeley, California 1990...... page 102...." At that point, Fred Ross...entered into their lives.. ..Cesar Chavez proved to be that man." 4. The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers Movement by Susan Ferriss and Ricardo Sandoval, Paradigm Productions, Inc. 1970...... pp 37-50 .... Sal Si Puedes.... this is an extensive description of the barrio.. and the initial organizing training that Cesar experienced....

5. Sal Si Puedes: Cesar Chavez and the New American Revolution by Peter Matthiessen, Random House, New York, 1969...... pp 43-56 ....." In the days that followed, I was able to piece together the story of how Chavez became an organizer."

6. The Gospel of Cesar Chavez: My Faith in Action, Edited by Mario T. Garcia Sheed & Ward, Chicago, 2007...... pp 7- 10...."The combination of Fr. Donald and Fred Ross is critical in appreciating the emergence of Cesar as a major leader among Mexican Americans." Page 2 Fr. Donald McDonneW McDonnell Hall

7. Cesar Chavez: Autobiography of La Causa by Jacques Levy, W.W. Norton & Company, Lnc. New York, 1975...... pp 89-91 .....pp 124....pp 145-46... Fr. Mc Donnell

8. Conquering Goliath: Cesar Chavez at the Beginning by Fred Ross, El Taller Grafico Press Book, United Farm WorkersKeene, California1989...... pp 1-5...."In the late spring, 1952... ."

November 14, 2011

Martha Crusius Program Chief, Planning and Environmental Compliance National Park Service, Pacific West Regional Office 333 Bush Street, #500 San Francisco, CA 94104

Re: McDonnell Hall, Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in San Jose, California is Nationally Significant Site.

Dear Ms. Crusius,

We strongly urge you to recognize McDonnell Hall as a Nationally Significant Site in your recommendations to Secretary Salazar and request resources for the completion of its National Historic Landmark nomination application.

Presently, the Draft Cesar Chavez Special Resource Study Report of the National Park Service (Draft Resource Study Report) places McDonnell Hall in the category of Potentially Nationally Significant Sites – Additional Research Needed, with 10 other sites. Throughout the Draft Resource Study Report, San Jose, California is recognized as an early focal point of the productive life of Cesar Chavez and the farm labor movement:

The family decision to move back to San Jose put Cesar on a path that soon would intersect with those of Father Donald McDonnell and Fred Ross, two men who would change the course of his life.

Draft Resource Study Report pages 6 and 7 McDonnell Hall, Our Lady of Guadalupe Church is the site where the lives and gifts of these three heroic individuals intersected – it is an outstanding example of a resource depicting the productive life of Cesar Chavez and events important to the farm labor movement. Cesar was a very spiritual person and a devoted Catholic. McDonnell Hall was originally Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, where Cesar attended Mass and bonded with Father McDonnell, whom bridged the development of a relationship between Cesar and Fred Ross. The significant early alliance forged among Cesar, Father McDonnell and Fred Ross at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church laid the blueprint for the farm labor movement’s continuous bond with the Catholic and Interfaith community.

The seminal role of East San Jose and McDonnell Hall in Cesar’s productive life and the farm labor movement is clearly recognized in the Draft Special Resource Study Report:

The first phase of Cesar Chavez’s productive life as a community organizer, civil rights advocate, and labor leader began in the “Sal Si Puedes” barrio of East San Jose, where Chavez lived from 1952 to 1955 and met the two men whose influence shaped the rest of his life: Father Donald McDonnell and Fred Ross. The building most closely associated with this phase of Chavez’s life is now known as McDonnell Hall.

Draft Resource Study Report page 49.

Like the five sites already identified as Nationally Significant Sites by the National Park Service, the Draft Resource Study Report states that McDonnell Hall possesses a high degree of integrity and has national significance for its association with Cesar Chavez and the farm labor movement, meeting NHL Criterion 1 and 2. Draft Resource Study Report pages 48 – 50 and 59 – 61. McDonnell Hall is presently the only site of the 11 Potentially Nationally Significant sites identified to have High Integrity and meet NHL Criterion 1 and 2, comparable to the five sites identified by the National Park Service as Nationally Significant Site. Draft Report pages 59 – 61.

We have been made aware that constraints of time and resources have impeded the National Park Service from attaining certainty to support inclusion of McDonnell Hall in the group of Nationally Significant Sites. The detrimental impact and consequences of these constraints are untenable and thwart the integrity of efforts to nationally recognize Cesar Chavez and the Farm Labor Movement. The superlative opportunities for public enjoyment of this rich cultural and civil rights history cannot be overlooked in haste.

We deeply appreciate the importance placed upon completion of the Cesar Chavez Special Resource Study by the National Park Service and Department of Interior under your leadership and hope you recognize that it would be an enormous disservice to the nation and historical record for McDonnell Hall to not be recognized as a Nationally Significant Site – it embodies the beginning of this national story about a son of the Catholic Church and of San Jose, California.

Together with members of Congress, the California State Legislature, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, San Jose City Council, Bishop Patrick McGrath of the Diocese of San Jose, the California Catholic Conference, the United Farm Workers of America, the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation, the Dolores Huerta Foundation, La Raza Roundtable de California, and Evergreen Elementary School District and the Chavez family member that still live in the greater San Jose community. We strongly urge you to recognize McDonnell Hall as Nationally Significant Site and authorize resources for completion of its NHL nomination application.

Your consideration and leadership is appreciated greatly.

Sincerely,

Rudolph Chavez Medina President Chavez Family Vision, Inc.